The selections from Espronceda included in this volume have been edited
for the benefit of advanced Spanish classes in schools and universities.
The study of Espronceda, Spain's greatest Romantic poet, offers the best
possible approach to the whole subject of Romanticism. He is Spain's
"representative man" in that movement. Furthermore, the wealth of meters
he uses is such that no other poet provides so good a text for an
introduction to the study of Spanish versification. The editor has
therefore treated the biography of Espronceda with some degree of
completeness, studying his career as one fully representative of the
historical and literary movements of the period. A treatment of the main
principles of Spanish versification was also considered indispensable.
It is assumed that the text will be used only in classes where the
students are thoroughly familiar with the rudiments of Spanish grammar.
Therefore only the more difficult points of grammar are dealt with in
the notes, and little help, outside of the vocabulary, is given the
student in the translating of difficult passages.
The editor makes no pretense to having established critical texts of
the poems here printed, although he hopes that some improvement will be
noted over previous editions. A critical edition of Espronceda's works
has never been printed. Espronceda himself gave little attention to
their publication. Hartzenbusch and others intervened as editors in some
of the earliest editions. Their arbitrary changes have been repeated in
all subsequent editions. The text of "El Estudiante de Salamanca" has
been based upon the "Poesías de D. José de Espronceda," Madrid, 1840,
the so-called _editio princeps_. This edition, however, cannot be
regarded as wholly authoritative. It was not prepared for the press by
the poet himself, but by his friend José García de Villalta. Though
far more authentic in its readings than later editions, it abounds in
inaccuracies. I have not followed its capricious punctuation, and have
studied it constantly in connection with other editions, notably the
edition of 1884 ("Obras Poéticas y Escritos en Prosa," Madrid, 1884). To
provide a really critical text some future editor must collate the 1840
text with that version of the poem which appeared in _La Alhambra_, an
obscure Granada review, for the year 1839. "El Mendigo" and "El Canto
del Cosaco" I also base upon the 1840 edition, although the former first
appeared in _La Revista Española_, Sept. 6, 1834. I base the "Canción
del Pirata" upon the original version published in _El Artista_, Vol. I,
1835, p. 43. I take the "Soneto" from "El Liceo Artístico y Literario
Español," 1838. For "A Teresa, Descansa en Paz," I follow the Madrid
edition of 1884. The text of this, as for the whole of "El Diablo
Mundo," is more reliable than that of the earlier poems.
I desire to thank Professors Rudolph Schevill, Karl Pietsch, and Milton
A. Buchanan for helpful suggestions, and the latter more particularly
for the loan of rare books. The vocabulary is almost entirely the
work of my wife Emily Cox Northup, whose collaboration is by no means
restricted to this portion of the book. More than to any other one
person I am indebted to Mr. Steven T. Byington of the staff of Ginn
and Company, by whose acute and scholarly observations I have often
profited.