FROM THE FIRST APPEARANCE OF THE WRITTEN LANGUAGE TO THE EARLY PART OF THE
REIGN OF CHARLES V. (1200-1500).
1. EARLY NATIONAL LITERATURE.--There are two traits of the earliest
Spanish literature which so peculiarly distinguish it that they deserve to
be noticed from the outset--religious faith and knightly loyalty. The
Spanish national character, as it has existed from the earliest times to
the present day, was formed in that solemn contest which began when the
Moors landed beneath the rock of Gibraltar, and which did not end until
eight centuries after, when the last remnants of the race were driven from
the shores of Spain. During this contest, especially that part of it when
the earliest Spanish poetry appeared, nothing but an invincible faith and
a not less invincible loyalty to their own princes could have sustained
the Christian Spaniards in their struggles against their infidel
oppressors. It was, therefore, a stern necessity which made these two high
qualities elements of the Spanish national character, and it is not
surprising that we find submission to the church and loyalty to the king
constantly breathing through every portion of Spanish literature.
The first monument of the Spanish, or, as it was oftener called, the
Castilian tongue, the most ancient epic in any of the Romance languages,
is "The Poem of the Cid." It consists of more than three thousand lines,
and was probably not composed later than the year 1200. This poem
celebrates the achievements of the great hero of the chivalrous age of
Spain, Rodrigo Diaz (1020-1099), who obtained from five Moorish kings,
whom he had vanquished in battle, the title of El Seid, or my lord. He was
also called by the Spaniards El Campeador or El Cid Campeador, the
Champion or the Lord Champion, and he well deserved the honorable title,
for he passed almost the whole of his life in the field against the
oppressors of his country, and led the conquering arms of the Christians
over nearly a quarter of Spain. No hero has been so universally celebrated
by his countrymen, and poetry and tradition have delighted to attach to
his name a long series of fabulous achievements, which remind us as often
of Amadis and Arthur, as they do of the sober heroes of history. His
memory is so sacredly dear to the Spanish nation, that to say "by the
faith of Rodrigo," is still considered the strongest vow of loyalty.
The poem of the Cid is valuable mainly for the living picture it presents
of manners and character in the eleventh century. It is a contemporary and
spirited exhibition of the chivalrous times of Spain, given occasionally
with an admirable and Homeric simplicity. It is the history of the most
romantic hero of Spanish tradition, continually mingled with domestic and
personal details, that bring the character of the Cid and his age very
near to our own sympathies and interests. The language is the same which
he himself spoke--still only imperfectly developed--it expresses the bold
and original spirit of the time, and the metre and rhyme are rude and
unsettled; but the poem throughout is striking and original, and breathes
everywhere the true Castilian spirit. During the thousand years which
elapsed from the time of the decay of Greek and Roman culture down to the
appearance of the Divine Comedy, no poetry was produced so original in its
tone, or so full of natural feeling, picturesqueness, and energy.
There are a few other poems, anonymous, like that of the Cid, whose
language and style carry them back to the thirteenth century. The next
poetry we meet is by a known author, Gonzalo (1220-1260), a priest
commonly called Berceo, from the place of his birth. His works, all on
religious subjects, amount to more than thirteen thousand lines. His
language shows some advance from that in which the Cid was written, but
the power and movement of that remarkable legend are entirely wanting in
these poems. There is a simple-hearted piety in them, however, that is
very attractive, and in some of them a story-telling spirit that is
occasionally vivid and graphic.
Alfonso, surnamed the Wise (1221-1284), united the crowns of Leon and
Castile, and attracted to his court many of the philosophers and learned
men of the East. He was a poet closely connected with the Provençal
troubadours of his time, and so skilled in astronomy and the occult
sciences that his fame spread throughout Europe. He had more political,
philosophical, and elegant learning than any man of his age, and made
further advances in some of the exact sciences. At one period his
consideration was so great, that he was elected Emperor of Germany; but
his claims were set aside by the subsequent election of Rudolph of
Hapsburg. The last great work undertaken by Alfonso was a kind of code
known as "Las Siete Partidas," or The Seven Parts, from the divisions of
the work itself. This is the most important legislative monument of the
age, and forms a sort of Spanish common law, which, with the decisions
under it, has been the basis of Spanish jurisprudence ever since. Becoming
a part of the Constitution of the State in all Spanish colonies, it has,
from the time Louisiana and Florida were added to the United States,
become in some cases the law in our own country.
The life of Alfonso was full of painful vicissitudes. He was driven from
his throne by factious nobles and a rebellious son, and died in exile,
leaving behind him the reputation of being the wisest fool in Christendom.
Mariana says of him: "He was more fit for letters than for the government
of his subjects; he studied the heavens and watched the stars, but forgot
the earth and lost his kingdom." Yet Alfonso is among the chief founders
of his country's intellectual fame, and he is to be remembered alike for
the great advancement Castilian prose composition made in his hands, for
his poetry, for his astronomical tables--which all the progress of modern
science has not deprived of their value--and for his great work on
legislation, which is at this moment an authority in both hemispheres.
Juan Lorenzo Segura (1176-1250) was the author of a poem containing more
than ten thousand lines, on the history of Alexander the Great. In this
poem the manners and customs of Spain in the thirteenth century are
substituted for those of ancient Greece, and the Macedonian hero is
invested with all the virtues and even equipments of European chivalry.
Don Juan Manuel, (1282-1347), a nephew of Alfonso the Wise, was one of the
most turbulent and dangerous Spanish barons of his time. His life was full
of intrigue and violence, and for thirty years he disturbed his country by
his military and rebellious enterprises. But in all these circumstances,
so adverse to intellectual pursuits, he showed himself worthy of the
family in which for more than a century letters had been honored and
cultivated. Don Juan is known to have written twelve works, but it is
uncertain how many of these are still in existence; only one, "Count
Lucanor," has been placed beyond the reach of accident by being printed.
The Count Lucanor is the most valuable monument of Spanish literature in
the fourteenth century, and one of the earliest prose works in the
Castilian tongue, as the Decameron, which appeared about the same time,
was the first in the Italian. Both are collections of tales; but the
object of the Decameron is to amuse, while the Count Lucanor is the
production of a statesman, instructing a grave and serious nation in
lessons of policy and morality in the form of apologues. These stories
have suggested many subjects for the Spanish stage, and one of them
contains the groundwork of Shakspeare's "Taming of the Shrew."
Juan Ruiz, arch-priest of Hita (1292-1351), was a contemporary of Don
Manuel. His works consist of nearly seven thousand verses, forming a
series of stories which appear to be sketches from his own history,
mingled with fictions and allegories. The most curious is "The Battle of
Don Carnival with Madame Lent," in which Don Bacon, Madame Hungbeef, and a
train of other savory personages, are marshaled in mortal combat. The
cause of Madame Lent triumphs, and Don Carnival is condemned to solitary
imprisonment and one spare meal each day. At the end of forty days the
allegorical prisoner escapes, raises new followers, Don Breakfast and
others, and re-appears in alliance with Don Amor. The poetry of the arch-
priest is very various in tone. In general, it is satirical and pervaded
by a quiet humor. His happiest success is in the tales and apologues which
illustrate the adventures that constitute a framework for his poetry,
which is natural and spirited; and in this, as in other points, he
strikingly resembles Chaucer. Both often sought their materials in
Northern French poetry, and both have that mixture of devotion and of
licentiousness belonging to their age, as well as to the personal
character of each.
Rabbi Santob, a Jew of Carrion (fl. 1350), was the author of many poems,
the most important of which is "The Dance of Death," a favorite subject of
the painters and poets of the Middle Ages, representing a kind of
spiritual masquerade, in which persons of every rank and age appear
dancing with the skeleton form of Death. In this Spanish version it is
perhaps more striking and picturesque than in any other--the ghastly
nature of the subject being brought into very lively contrast with the
festive tone of the verses. This grim fiction had for several centuries
great success throughout Europe.
Pedro Lopez Ayala (1332-1407), grand chancellor of Castile under four
successive sovereigns, was both a poet and a historian. His poem, "Court
Rhymes," is the most remarkable of his productions. His style is grave,
gentle, and didactic, with occasional expressions of poetic feeling, which
seem, however, to belong as much to their age as to their author.
2. OLD BALLADS.--From the thirteenth to the fifteenth century, the period
we have just gone over, the courts of the different sovereigns of Europe
were the principal centres of refinement and civilization, and this was
peculiarly the case in Spain during this period, when literature was
produced or encouraged by the sovereigns and other distinguished men. But
this was not the only literature of Spain. The spirit of poetry diffused
throughout the peninsula, excited by the romantic events of Spanish
history, now began to assume the form of a popular literature, and to
assert for itself a place which in some particulars it has maintained ever
since. This popular literature may be distributed into four different
classes. The first contains the _Ballads_, or the narrative and lyrical
poetry of the common people from the earliest times; the second, the
_Chronicles_, or the half-genuine, half-fabulous histories of the great
events and heroes of the national annals; the third class comprises the
_Romances of Chivalry_, intimately connected with both the others, and,
after a time, as passionately admired by the whole nation; and the fourth
includes the _Drama_, which in its origin has always been a popular and
religious amusement, and was hardly less so in Spain than it was in Greece
or in France. These four classes compose what was generally most valued in
Spanish literature during the latter part of the fourteenth century, the
whole of the fifteenth, and much of the sixteenth. They rested on the deep
foundations of the national character, and therefore by their very nature
were opposed to the Provençal, the Italian, and the courtly schools, which
flourished during the same period.
The metrical structure of the old Spanish ballad was extremely simple,
consisting of eight-syllable lines, which are composed with great facility
in other languages as well as the Castilian. Sometimes they were broken
into stanzas of four lines each, thence called _redondillas_, or
roundelays, but their prominent peculiarity is that of the _asonante_, an
imperfect rhyme that echoes the same vowel, but not the same final
consonant in the terminating syllables. This metrical form was at a later
period adopted by the dramatists, and is now used in every department of
Spanish poetry.
The old Spanish ballads comprise more than a thousand poems, first
collected in the sixteenth century, whose authors and dates are alike
unknown. Indeed, until after the middle of that century, it is difficult
to find ballads written by known authors. These collections, arranged
without regard to chronological order, relate to the fictions of chivalry,
especially to Charlemagne and his peers, to the traditions and history of
Spain, to Moorish adventures, and to the private life and manners of the
Spaniards themselves; they belong to the unchronicled popular life and
character of the age which gave them birth. The ballads of chivalry, with
the exception of those relating to Charlemagne, occupy a less important
place than those founded on national subjects. The historical ballads are
by far the most numerous and the most interesting; and of those the first
in the order of time are those relating to Bernardo del Carpio, concerning
whom there are about forty. Bernardo (fl. 800) was the offspring of a
secret marriage between the Count de Saldaña and a sister of Alfonso the
Chaste, at which the king was so much offended that he sent the Infanta to
a convent, and kept the Count in perpetual imprisonment, educating
Bernardo as his own son, and keeping him in ignorance of his birth. The
achievements of Bernardo ending with the victory of Roncesvalles, his
efforts to procure the release of his father, the falsehood of the king,
and the despair and rebellion of Bernardo after the death of the Count in
prison, constitute the romantic incidents of these ballads.
The next series is that on Fernan Gonzalez, a chieftain who, in the middle
of the tenth century, recovered Castile from the Moors and became its
first sovereign count. The most romantic are those which describe his
being twice rescued from prison by his heroic wife, and his contest with
King Sancho, in which he displayed all the turbulence and cunning of a
robber baron of the Middle Ages.
The Seven Lords of Lara form the next group; some of them are beautiful,
and the story they contain is one of the most romantic in Spanish history.
The Seven Lords of Lara are betrayed by their uncle into the hands of the
Moors, and put to death, while their father, by the basest treason, is
confined in a Moorish prison. An eighth son, the famous Mudarra, whose
mother is a noble Moorish lady, at last avenges all the wrongs of his
race.
But from the earliest period, the Cid has been the occasion of more
ballads than any other of the great heroes of Spanish history or fable.
They were first collected in 1612, and have been continually republished
to the present day. There are at least a hundred and sixty of them,
forming a more complete series than any other, all strongly marked with
the spirit of their age and country.
The Moorish ballads form a large and brilliant class by themselves. The
period when this style of poetry came into favor was the century after the
fall of Granada, when the south, with its refinement and effeminacy, its
magnificent and fantastic architecture, the foreign yet not strange
manners of its people, and the stories of their warlike achievements, all
took strong hold of the Spanish imagination, and made of Granada a fairy
land.
Of the ballads relating to private life, most of them are effusions of
love, others are satirical, pastoral, and burlesque, and many descriptive
of the manners and amusements of the people at large; but all of them are
true representations of Spanish life. They are marked by an attractive
simplicity of thought and expression, united to a sort of mischievous
shrewdness. No such popular poetry exists in any other language, and no
other exhibits in so great a degree that nationality which is the truest
element of such poetry everywhere. The English and Scotch ballads, with
which they may most naturally be compared, belong to a ruder state of
society, which gave to the poetry less dignity and elevation than belong
to a people who, like the Spanish, were for centuries engaged in a contest
ennobled by a sense of religion and loyalty, and which could not fail to
raise the minds of those engaged in it far above the atmosphere that
settled around the bloody feuds of rival barons, or the gross maraudings
of border warfare. The great Castilian heroes, the Cid, Bernardo del
Carpio, and Pelayo, are even now an essential portion of the faith and
poetry of the common people of Spain, and are still honored as they were
centuries ago. The stories of Guarinos and of the defeat at Roncesvalles
are still sung by the wayfaring muleteers, as they were when Don Quixote
heard them on his journey to Toboso, and the showmen still rehearse the
same adventures in the streets of Seville, that they did at the solitary
inn of Montesinos when he encountered them there.
3. THE CHRONICLES.--As the great Moorish contest was transferred to the
south of Spain, the north became comparatively quiet. Wealth and leisure
followed; the castles became the abodes of a crude but free hospitality,
and the distinctions of society grew more apparent. The ballads from this
time began to subside into the lower portions of society; the educated
sought forms of literature more in accordance with their increased
knowledge and leisure, and their more settled system of social life. The
oldest of these forms was that of the Spanish prose chronicles, of which
there are general and royal chronicles, chronicles of particular events,
chronicles of particular persons, chronicles of travels, and romantic
chronicles.
The first of these chronicles in the order of time as well as that of
merit, comes from the royal hand of Alfonso the Wise, and is entitled "The
Chronicle of Spain." It begins with the creation of the world, and
concludes with the death of St. Ferdinand, the father of Alfonso. The last
part, relating to the history of Spain, is by far the most attractive, and
sets forth in a truly national spirit all the rich old traditions of the
country. This is not only the most interesting of the Spanish chronicles,
but the most interesting of all that in any country mark the transition
from its poetical and romantic traditions to the grave exactness of
historical truth. The chronicle of the Cid was probably taken from this
work.
Alfonso XI. ordered the annals of the kingdom to be continued down to his
own reign, or through the period from 1252 to 1312. During many succeeding
reigns the royal chronicles were continued,--that of Ferdinand and
Isabella, by Pulgar, is the last instance of the old style; but though the
annals were still kept up, the free and picturesque spirit that gave them
life was no longer there.
The chronicles of particular events and persons are most of them of little
value.
Among the chronicles of travels, the oldest one of any value is an account
of a Spanish embassy to Tamerlane, the great Tartar potentate.
Of the romantic chronicles, the principal specimen is that of Don Roderic,
a fabulous account of the reign of King Roderic, the conquest of the
country by the Moors, and the first attempts to recover it in the
beginning of the eighth century. The style is heavy and verbose, although
upon it Southey has founded much of his beautiful poem of "Roderic, the
last of the Goths." This chronicle of Don Roderic, which was little more
than a romance of chivalry, marks the transition to those romantic
fictions that had already begun to inundate Spain. But the series which it
concludes extends over a period of two hundred and fifty years, from the
time of Alfonso the Wise to the accession of Charles V. (1221-1516), and
is unrivaled in the richness and variety of its poetic elements. In truth,
these old Spanish chronicles cannot be compared with those of any other
nation, and whether they have their foundation in truth or in fable, they
strike their strong roots further down into the deep soil of popular
feeling and character. The old Spanish loyalty, the old Spanish religious
faith, as both were formed and nourished in long periods of national trial
and suffering, everywhere appear; and they contain such a body of
antiquities, traditions, and fables as has been offered to no other
people; furnishing not only materials from which a multitude of old
Spanish plays, ballads, and romances have been drawn, but a mine which has
unceasingly been wrought by the rest of Europe for similar purposes, and
which still remains unexhausted.
4. ROMANCES OF CHIVALRY.--The ballads originally belonged to the whole
nation, but especially to its less cultivated portions. The chronicles, on
the contrary, belonged to the knightly classes, who sought in these
picturesque records of their fathers a stimulus to their own virtue. But
as the nation advanced in refinement, books of less grave character were
demanded, and the spirit of poetical invention soon turned to the national
traditions, and produced from these new and attractive forms of fiction.
Before the middle of the fourteenth century, the romances of chivalry
connected with the stories of Arthur and the knights of the Round Table,
and Charlemagne and his peers, which had appeared in France two centuries
before, were scarcely known in Spain; but after that time they were
imitated, and a new series of fictions was invented, which soon spread
through the world, and became more famous than, either of its
predecessors.
This extraordinary family of romances is that of which "Amadis" is the
poetical head and type, and this was probably produced before the year
1400, by Vasco de Lobeira, a Portuguese. The structure and tone of this
fiction are original, and much more free than those of the French romances
that had preceded it. The stories of Arthur and Charlemagne are both
somewhat limited in invention by the adventures ascribed to them in the
traditions and chronicles, while that of Amadis belongs purely to the
imagination, and its sole purpose is to set forth the character of a
perfect knight. Amadis is admitted by general consent to be the best of
all the old romances of chivalry. The series which followed, founded upon
the Amadis, reached the number of twenty-four. They were successively
translated into French, and at once became famous. Considering the
passionate admiration which this work so long excited, and the influence
that, with little merit of its own, it has ever since exercised on the
poetry and romance of modern Europe, it is a phenomenon without parallel
in literary history.
Many other series of romances followed, numbering more than seventy
volumes, most of them in folio, and their influence over the Spanish
character extended through two hundred years. Their extraordinary
popularity may be accounted for, if we remember that, when they first
appeared in Spain, it had long been peculiarly the land of knighthood.
Extravagant and impossible as are many of the adventures recorded in these
books of chivalry, they so little exceeded the absurdities of living men
that many persons took the romances themselves to be true histories, and
believed them. The happiest work of the greatest genius Spain has produced
bears witness on every page to the prevalence of an absolute fanaticism
for these books of chivalry, and becomes at once the seal of their vast
popularity and the monument of their fate.
5. THE DRAMA.--The ancient theatre of the Greeks and Romans was continued
in some of its grosser forms in Constantinople and in other parts of the
fallen empire far into the Middle Ages. But it was essentially
mythological or heathenish, and, as such, it was opposed by the Christian
church, which, however, provided a substitute for what it thus opposed, by
adding a dramatic element to its festivals. Thus the manger at Bethlehem,
with the worship of the shepherds and magi, was at a very early period
solemnly exhibited every year before the altars of the churches, at
Christmas, as were the tragical events of the last days of the Saviour's
life, during Lent and at the approach of Easter. To these spectacles,
dialogue was afterwards added, and they were called, as we have seen,
_Mysteries_; they were used successfully not only as a means of amusement,
but for the religious edification of an ignorant multitude, and in some
countries they have been continued quite down to our own times. The period
when these representations were first made in Spain cannot now be
determined, though it was certainly before the middle of the thirteenth
century, and no distinct account of them now remains.
A singular combination of pastoral and satirical poetry indicates the
first origin of the Spanish secular drama. Towards the close of the
fifteenth century, these pastoral dialogues were converted into real
dramas by Enzina, and were publicly represented. But the most important of
these early productions is the "Tragi-comedy of Calisto and Meliboea," or
"Celestina." Though it can never have been represented, it has left
unmistakable traces of its influence on the national drama ever since. It
was translated into various languages, and few works ever had a more
brilliant success. The great fault of the Celestina is its shameless
libertinism of thought and language; and its chief merits are its life-
like exhibition of the most unworthy forms of human character, and its
singularly pure, rich, and idiomatic Castilian style.
The dramatic writers of this period seem to have had no idea of founding a
popular national drama, of which there is no trace as late as the close of
the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella.
6. PROVENÇAL LITERATURE IN SPAIN.--When the crown of Provence was
transferred, by the marriage of its heir, in 1113, to Berenger, Count of
Barcelona, numbers of the Provençal poets followed their liege lady from
Arles to Barcelona, and established themselves in her new capital. At the
very commencement, therefore, of the twelfth century, Provençal refinement
was introduced into the northeastern corner of Spain. Political causes
soon carried it farther towards the centre of the country. The Counts of
Barcelona obtained, by marriage, the kingdom of Aragon, and soon spread
through their new territories many of the refinements of Provence. The
literature thus introduced retained its Provençal character till it came
in contact with that more vigorous spirit which had been advancing from
the northwest, and which afterwards gave its tone to the consolidated
monarchy.
The poetry of the troubadours in Catalonia, as well as in its native home,
belonged much to the court, and the highest in rank and power were
earliest and foremost on its lists. From 1209 to 1229, the war against the
Albigenses was carried on with extraordinary cruelty and fury. To this
sect nearly all the contemporary troubadours belonged, and when they were
compelled to escape from the burnt and bloody ruins of their homes, many
of them hastened to the friendly court of Aragon, sure of being protected
and honored by princes who were at the same time poets.
From the close of the thirteenth century, the songs of the troubadours
were rarely heard in the land that gave them birth three hundred years
before; and the plant that was not permitted to expand in its native soil,
soon perished in that to which it had been transplanted. After the opening
of the fourteenth century, no genuinely Provençal poetry appears in
Castile, and from the middle of that century it begins to recede from
Catalonia and Aragon; or rather, to be corrupted by the hardier dialect
spoken there by the mass of the people. The retreat of the troubadours
over the Pyrenees, from Aix to Barcelona, from Barcelona to Saragossa and
Valencia, is everywhere marked by the wrecks and fragments of their
peculiar poetry and cultivation. At length, oppressed by the more powerful
Castilian, what remained of the language, that gave the first impulse to
poetic feeling in modern times, sank into a neglected dialect.
7. THE INFLUENCE OF ITALIAN LITERATURE IN SPAIN.--The influence of the
Italian literature over the Spanish, though less apparent at first, was
more deep and lasting than that of the Provençal. The long wars that the
Christians of Spain waged against the Moors brought them into closer
spiritual connection with the Church of Rome than any other people of
modern times. Spanish students repaired to the famous universities of
Italy, and returned to Spain, bringing with them the influence of Italian
culture; and commercial and political relations still further promoted a
free communication of the manners and literature of Italy to Spain. The
language, also, from its affinity with the Spanish, constituted a still
more important and effectual medium of intercourse. In the reign of John
II. (1407-1454), the attempt to form an Italian school in Spain became
apparent. This sovereign gathered about him a sort of poetical court, and
gave an impulse to refinement that was perceptible for several
generations.
Among those who interested themselves most directly in the progress of
poetry in Spain, the first in rank, after the king himself, was the
Marquis of Villena (1384-1434), whose fame rests chiefly on the "Labors of
Hercules," a short prose treatise or allegory.
First of all the courtiers and poets of this reign, in point of merit,
stands the Marquis of Santillana (1398-1458), whose works belong more or
less to the Provençal, Italian, and Spanish schools. He was the founder of
an Italian and courtly school in Spanish poetry--one adverse to the
national school and finally overcome by it, but one that long exercised a
considerable sway. Another poet of the court of John II. is Juan de Mena,
historiographer of Castile. His principal works are, "The Coronation" and
"The Labyrinth," both imitations of Dante. They are of consequence as
marking the progress of the language. The principal poem of Manrique the
younger, one of an illustrious family of that name, who were poets,
statesmen, and soldiers, on the death of his father, is remarkable for
depth and truth of feeling. Its greatest charm is its beautiful
simplicity, and its merit entitles it to the place it has taken among the
most admired portions of the elder Spanish literature.
8. THE CANCIONEROS AND PROSE WRITINGS.--The most distinct idea of the
poetical culture of Spain, during the fifteenth century, may he obtained
from the "Cancioneros," or collections of poetry, sometimes all by one
author, sometimes by many. The oldest of these dates from about 1450, and
was the work of Baena. Many similar collections followed, and they were
among the fashionable wants of the age. In 1511, Castillo printed at
Valencia the "Cancionero General," which contained poems attributed to
about a hundred different poets, from the time of Santillana to the period
in which it was made. Ten editions of this remarkable book followed, and
in it we find the poetry most in favor at the court and with the refined
society of Spain. It contains no trace of the earliest poetry of the
country, but the spirit of the troubadours is everywhere present; the
occasional imitations from the Italian are more apparent than successful,
and in general it is wearisome and monotonous, overstrained, formal, and
cold. But it was impossible that such a state of poetical culture should
become permanent in a country so full of stirring events as Spain was in
the age that followed the fall of Granada and the discovery of America;
everything announced a decided movement in the literature of the nation,
and almost everything seemed to favor and facilitate it.
The prose writers of the fifteenth century deserve mention chiefly because
they were so much valued in their own age. Their writings are encumbered
with the bad taste and pedantry of the time. Among them are Lucena,
Alfonso de la Torre, Pulgar, and a few others.
9. THE INQUISITION.--The first period of the history of Spanish
literature, now concluded, extends through nearly four centuries, from the
first breathings of the poetical enthusiasm of the mass of the people,
down to the decay of the courtly literature in the latter part of the
reign of Ferdinand and Isabella. The elements of a national literature
which it contains--the old ballads, the old chronicles, the old theatre--
are of a vigor and promise not to be mistaken. They constitute a mine of
more various wealth than had been offered under similar circumstances, at
so early a period, to any other people; and they give indications of a
subsequent literature that must vindicate for itself a place among the
permanent monuments of modern civilization.
The condition of things in Spain, at the close of the reign of Ferdinand
and Isabella, seemed to promise a long period of national prosperity. But
one institution, destined to check and discourage all intellectual
freedom, was already beginning to give token of its great and blighting
power. The Christian Spaniards had from an early period been essentially
intolerant. The Moors and the Jews were regarded by them with an intense
and bitter hatred; the first as their conquerors, and the last for the
oppressive claims which their wealth gave them on numbers of the Christian
inhabitants; and as enemies of the Cross, it was regarded as a merit to
punish them. The establishment of the Inquisition, therefore, in 1481,
which had been so effectually used to exterminate the heresy of the
Albigenses, met with little opposition. The Jews and the Moors were its
first victims, and with them it was permitted to deal unchecked by the
power of the state. But the movements of this power were in darkness and
secrecy. From the moment when the Inquisition laid its grasp on the object
of its suspicions to that of his execution, no voice was heard to issue
from its cells. The very witnesses it summoned were punished with death if
they revealed the secrets of its dread tribunals; and often of the victim
nothing was known but that he had disappeared from his accustomed haunts
never again to be seen. The effect was appalling. The imaginations of men
were filled with horror at the idea of a power so vast, so noiseless,
constantly and invisibly around them, whose blow was death, but whose step
could neither be heard nor followed amidst the gloom into which it
retreated. From this time, Spanish intolerance took that air of sombre
fanaticism which it never afterwards lost. The Inquisition gradually
enlarged its jurisdiction, until none was too humble to escape its notice,
or too high to be reached by its power. From an inquiry into the private
opinions of individuals to an interference with books and the press was
but a step, and this was soon taken, hastened by the appearance and
progress of the Reformation of Luther.