_The Literary Associations of the City_
'Among no other people did the spirit and character of the middle
age, in its most beautiful and dignified form, so long continue and
survive in manners, ways of thinking, intellectual culture, and
works of imagination and poetry, as among the
Spaniards.'--SCHLEGEL, _Philosophy of History_.
We have noted that in the Visigoth and Moorish periods Seville was a
centre of literature and the arts. The Christians had their St. Isidore,
a famed historian and theological writer, and the Moriscoes acclaimed
the sagacious El Begi, 'whose knowledge was a marvel.' Many Moorish
scribes laboured in the city before San Fernando regained it for the
Spaniards; but very few of their names have lived through the stress of
turbulent times, when every man was for fighting, and art and letters
languished.
When we reach the fifteenth century, we find that certain enterprising
German printers set up presses in Seville, and that books, such as Diego
de Valera's _Cronica de España_, were printed and published.
The printing press gradually destroyed the wonderful art of the
illuminated missal, in which the monks excelled, and letterpress began
to supersede manuscript. In the Cathedral Library of Seville is the
great Bible of Pedro de Pampeluna, in two volumes. It was transcribed
for Alfonso the Learned, and the work is perhaps unmatched. Rich
illuminations abound in the pages, testifying to the skill and the
patience of the artist.
But this industry, followed with such zeal by the clergy, was soon
lost. With the advent of machinery more books were produced, and they
came into the hands of the people, who in the pre-printing days were
unable to purchase the costly volumes of manuscript.
At this time also secular dramas began to take the place of mystery
plays. The theatre has remained one of the favourite recreations of the
Spanish people, and on the modern stage serious plays, dealing with
social problems, are often produced. Among the playwrights of Spain the
name of Lope de Rueda is held in reverence, for it was he who opened the
way for them. 'The real father of the Spanish theatre' was a native of
Seville, and by trade a goldsmith. From 1560 to 1590, the dramas of Lope
de Rueda were performed in Seville. Cervantes may have been influenced
by this pioneer of dramatic art, for, as a youth, he saw Lope de Rueda
act.
In his zenith, the player's stage consisted of half-a-dozen planks, laid
upon four benches. There was no scenery. Old blankets served as curtain
and 'back sheet.' Between the acts a few singers sang without any
instrumental accompaniment. With such primitive paraphernalia this
Thespian travelled about with his company of mummers, writing his own
dramas, and acting in them. He died about the year 1567.
Contemporary with Lope de Rueda and Cervantes was Domingo de Bercerra,
who was born in the city in 1535. During the campaign with the Turks, he
was seized by Moorish pirates and taken prisoner with Cervantes to
Algiers. De Bercerra is known for his translation of Giovanni della
Casa's _Il Galateo_. Hieronimo Carranza, who wrote _Philosophia y
destreza de las Armas_, and Juan de la Cueva, writer of plays and poems,
lived in Seville at this time.
We now enter upon an era memorable in the literary annals of the city.
This is the period when Seville could boast of her scholars, poets,
dramatists and historians, and lay claim to distinction as possessing
the most cultured circle of writers and artists in the whole of Spain.
Fernando de Herrera, born in 1534, in Seville, holds a high position
among Spanish poets. His _Canción á Lepanto_, a poem in celebration of
the victory of Lepanto, 'deserves,' says Mr. Butler Clarke, 'to be
placed side by side with the first eclogue of Garcilaso as one of the
noblest monuments of the Spanish tongue.'
Rodrigo Caro, the historian, and one of the Sevillian authors, says in
his _Illustrious Men, Natives of Seville_, that Herrera 'understood
Latin perfectly, and wrote several epigrams in that language, which
might rival the most famous ancient authors in thought and expression.
He possessed a moderate knowledge of Greek.' The prose writings of 'the
divine Herrera' are marked with the same beauty as his poetry. He wrote
a great general history of his country, up to the reign of Carlos V.,
and earned from Lope de Vega the title of 'the Learned.'
We learn that Fernando de Herrera was a tall man, with a handsome
countenance, thick curling hair, and a beard. The love of his life
appears to have been 'spiritual'; he was enamoured of Eliodora, Countess
of Gelves. This adoration was of the nature of that manifested by Dante
for Beatrice. The poet calls his divinity 'Love,' 'Sun,' and 'Star,' but
there is an unreality in his odes to the Countess. We read, too, that
Herrera was well read in philosophy, and expert in mathematics.
At this time there were two resorts in Seville for authors, artists, and
men of culture. One was the house of the refined and versatile Pacheco,
Canon of the Cathedral; the other was the Casa Pilatos, the mansion of
the Duques de Alcalá. In the circle of Francisco Pacheco we shall find
all the notable painters and poets of Seville; Céspedes, Cervantes, and
Velazquez, who married Pacheco's daughter, were frequenters of the
Canon's hospitable house. It was Pacheco who collected and published
Herrera's poems, under the patronage of the Condé d'Olivarez, and to him
we owe the preservation of some wonderful fragments of a poem on the art
of painting, composed by Pablo de Céspedes. These selections were quoted
by Pacheco in his treatise on art, and one of the finest passages is
that of counsel to an artist in painting a horse. Except for these
portions, nothing remains of the poem of Céspedes, which was a work of
high merit, written in the purest form of the Castilian language. The
author was a man of conspicuous ability. He painted, wrote, carved
statuary, and designed buildings.
The genial Pacheco is perhaps better known as a writer upon painting,
and a maker of Latin verse, than as an artist with the brush. His great
book on art, _Arte de la Pintura_, was published in 1649. It is
anecdotal, technical and historical, and displays the credulity of the
writer in regard to the miraculous. He had the honour of training
Velazquez, his future son-in-law, and the satisfaction of discovering
the power of his young pupil.
We will now take our way to the Casa Pilatos, which stands in the
_plaza_ of that name. Passing under a gateway, we enter a court. On the
right is a very beautiful ironwork door in the _Mudéjar_ form. An
attendant opens it, and we pass into an inner _patio_, surrounded by
busts, portions of antique sculpture, and two statues of Athena. In the
centre is a fountain. The _casa_ was designed by Moorish artists, early
in the sixteenth century, for Don Pedro Enriquez, and his wife Doña
Catalina de Ribera. A descendant, Don Fadrique, who had travelled in
Palestine, added the so-called Prætorium, and probably named the mansion
after Pontius Pilate. There are unlettered persons in Seville who will
assure you that Pilate lived in the house.
[Illustration: Cancela of the Casa Pilatus.]
The third Duke of Alcalá, Fernando Enriquez de Ribera, established a
great library here, and the Casa Pilatos was the rendezvous of a
polished coterie. The Duke collected pictures, procured Roman relics
from Italica, and had cabinets of coins and medals, and cases containing
manuscripts. He was an amateur painter, a patron of the fine arts, and
the encourager of struggling genius. Pedro de Madrazo, in his _Sevilla y
Cadiz_, states that 'the Casa Pilatos is an august representation of the
architectural genius of the sixteenth century; memorable for the
reunions of Pacheco, Céspedes, the Herreras, Góngora, Jauregui, Baltasar
de Alcázar, Rioja, Juan de Arguizo, and Cervantes.'
Other writers describe the architecture of the palace as pseudo-Moorish.
It is indeed a mixture of Gothic, Moorish, and Renaissance designs,
adorned with _azulejos_, the decorations being _Mudéjar_ for the greater
part. Pacheco, the friend of the Duke de Alcalá, painted the salon.
Mr. M. Digby Wyatt, in his valuable work, _An Architect's Note Book in
Spain_, describes the Casa Pilatos as possessing two special 'points of
architectural value,' _i.e._, 'the entirely Moresque character of the
stucco work at a comparatively late date, and the profuse use of
_azulejos_ or coloured tiles. It is ... in and about the splendid
staircase that this charming tile lining, of the use of which we have
here of late years commenced a very satisfactory revival, asserts its
value as a beautiful mode of introducing clean and permanent
polychromatic decoration.'
In the principal garden there are remains from Italica. The orange,
lemon and jasmine grow profusely in this sunny, sheltered corner of the
city. Here the cultured Duke Fernando Enriquez de Ribera discoursed with
his illustrious guests, when the stars twinkled and the air was sweet
with the odour of the jasmine and rose. No doubt Francisco Pacheco
brought his pupil Velazquez to the symposia. We can picture Cervantes
relating the story of his imprisonment in Algiers, or diverting the
company with anecdotes of the thieves and sharpers of Seville, whose
exploits are recorded in his novel of _Rinconete y Cortadillo_. Góngora,
the poet, whose affectations and 'Gongorisms' offended George Henry
Lewes, probably read his verses to a critical audience in the salon. Wit
vied with wit, scholar discussed with scholar, and artists discoursed
upon the new methods of painting. This was the intellectual centre of
Seville, where kindred souls uttered their deepest thoughts, assured of
sympathy and of comprehension. When the courtly owner of the palace
died, his library, his treasures and curiosities were removed to Madrid,
and Sevillian men of letters and painters lost a true friend.
In 1588, Miguel de Servantes Saavedra, otherwise Cervantes, lived in the
city. In his twenty-first year, while at Madrid, he had written a
pastoral poem called _Filena_, some sonnets and canzonets. A few years
later he obtained a position as chamberlain to Cardinal Julio Aquaviva
at Rome; but he was not long in Italy. The love of adventure inspired
him to enlist in the expedition force sent by Philip II. against Selim
the Grand Turk. At the famous battle of Lepanto the young soldier
received a wound in the left hand, which necessitated amputation. The
surgeons bungled, and Cervantes lost the use of his arm. Still, he
continued to serve as a private soldier in the ranks.
In 1575, Cervantes was aboard a galley called the _Sun_, and when
journeying from Naples to Spain, he and the entire crew were captured,
and borne to Algiers as prisoners. For five years he lay in a dungeon
until a sum was paid in ransom. Upon returning to his native land, he
joined his mother and sister at Madrid, and there he led a studious
life for three years. His fighting days were at an end. He had seen
strange things in foreign lands, and greatly enriched his store of
experience of life. Henceforward he gave of his knowledge of the world,
and toiled as a writer of poetry, dramas and marvellous romances. His
struggle with fortune was severe. He wrote thirty comedies without
gaining recognition. At this time he married Doña Catalina de Solazar y
Palacios y Vozmediano.
In Seville there lived two relatives of the soldier-dramatist. They were
merchants, with a large business, and it is said that they offered
Cervantes employment. Mr. J. Fitz-Maurice Kelly tells us that the author
obtained a post in the Real Audencia in Seville, probably that of
tax-gatherer. Cervantes himself relates that 'he found something better
to do than writing comedies.' Whether he sat on a stool in the
mercantile office of his relations, or travelled as a tax-collector in
Andalasia, is perhaps not quite certain. At anyrate, the dramatist
continued to produce plays. He sought an appointment as
Accountant-General of the new kingdom of Granada, or as Governor of
Secomusco in Guatemala, or as Paymaster of the galleys at Cartagena, or
as Corregidor in La Paz. His application was unnoticed, and it was not
until 1808 that the document was unearthed. It is a story of hardship,
neglect and disappointment. The soldier who had lost an arm in combat
with his country's foes, the genius whose name was to reach the far ends
of the civilised world, was forced to go begging for situations, which
were refused to him. He still plied his pen for poor returns in the way
of money. For Rodrigo Osorio he agreed to write six comedies at fifty
ducats each. The price was not to be paid unless each play was 'one of
the best ever presented in Spain.' Was there ever a more arbitrary
contract? It is doubtful whether Cervantes received anything for this
work. Then came the quarrel between the Church and the Stage.
Playwrights and actors were banned, and four months before the death of
Philip II. all the theatres were closed.
The clouds lifted slightly. In 1595 'Miguel Cervantes Saavedra of
Seville' won the prize offered by the Dominicans of Zaragoza for a
series of poems in honour of St. Hyacinthus. He appears to have earned
his living at this period as a tax-gatherer. Sometimes he was to be
found at Pacheco's house, and at the Casa Pilatos. Cervantes discerned
the genius of Herrera, and the two poets became friends. A sonnet in
praise of Herrera was written by Cervantes.
Fresh trouble beset the unfortunate author. 'About this period Cervantes
fell into the first of his money troubles,' writes Mr. Watts, in his
_Miguel de Cervantes_, 'in connection with his office. Having to remit a
sum of 7,400 _reals_ from Seville to Madrid, he entrusted it to the
hands of one Simon Freire, as his agent. Freire became bankrupt, and
fled from Spain. This involved Cervantes in a debt to the crown, for
which, being unable to pay, he was thrown into prison. Having reduced
the amount by what he recovered from the bankrupt estate of Freire to
2,600 _reals_, Cervantes was released after a detention of three months.
Neither then, nor at any time afterwards--although the affair hung over
him to trouble him for many years--was there any charge implicating his
own personal rectitude.'
Cervantes' pictures of the seamy side of Sevillian life were drawn
vividly in his _picaresco_ novels. The tales contain phrases in
_Germania_, or thieves' argot, showing that the author closely observed
his types of low life. It was not until he had reached his fifty-seventh
year that he finished the first part of _Don Quixote de la Mancha_. The
great romance was partly written during Cervantes' imprisonment in La
Mancha. There are three versions of the circumstances that brought about
his confinement. One account is that Cervantes made himself unpopular as
a tax-gatherer. But could that be made a felony or misdemeanour meriting
gaol? Another story relates how he became a factory-owner, and polluted
the Guadiana with waste matter; while a third report ascribes his
punishment to the offence of uttering satires upon a lady.
In 1605 _Don Quixote_ was published, in a quarto volume, by Juan de la
Cuesta of Madrid. Within seven months the book had reached its fourth
edition. W. H. Prescott, in his essay on 'Cervantes,' states that two
editions were issued in Madrid, one in Valencia, and one in Lisbon. Yet
the author was not relieved of the burden of poverty. Fame sounded his
name far and wide. But he had sold the copyright of his romance. And
although his reputation was established beyond all doubt, he does not
appear to have been in a position to obtain worthier remuneration for
his labours. What is perhaps more strange, the leading incidents of his
life were scarcely known in Spain when his first biographer, Mayans y
Siscar, essayed a history of the great writer's career. Seven towns
claimed him as a native when Tonson, in London, issued the first English
edition in 1738.
'If Cervantes, like his great contemporary, Shakespeare, has left few
authentic details of his existence,' writes Prescott, 'the deficiency
has been diligently supplied in both cases by speculation and
conjecture.'
In 1616 Cervantes fell sick of a dropsy. He was then in the sixty-ninth
year of his age. After a brief illness, the genius expired, receiving
the extreme unction as a devout Catholic.
In the Calle de Santa Clara in Seville is the Casa de los Marqueses de
Castromonte, a house mentioned by Cervantes in his novel, _La Española
Inglesa_ ('The Spanish-English Lady'). This _novela_ relates the
adventures of a Cadiz maiden, who was carried to England by one of the
Earl of Essex's captains in 1596.
We must now quit the stately Casa Pilatos, with its great literary
traditions, and briefly note a few more of the writers who are
associated with Seville. One of these is the novelist Cecilia Boehl von
Faber, of German descent, who wrote under the _nom de plume_ of Fernán
Caballero. This gifted authoress wrote several novels of social life in
Spain, in which she did not flinch from attacking faulty institutions.
She had even the courage to condemn the national pastime of
bull-fighting, an institution that very few Spaniards have ventured to
call in question. Fernán Caballero lived in the street that bears her
pen-name, and a tablet will be found upon the house which she occupied.
Mateo Aleman, author of _Guzman de Alfarache_, who is sometimes ranked
next to Cervantes, lived in the parish of San Nicolas. Alberto Lista,
the poet, also resided in Seville.
Lord Byron was here in August 1809. In a letter he writes:--
'We lodged in the house of two Spanish unmarried ladies, who possess
_six_ houses in Seville, and gave me a curious specimen of Spanish
manners. They are women of character, and the eldest a fine woman, the
youngest pretty, but not so good a figure as Donna Josepha. The freedom
of manner, which is general here, astonished me not a little; and in the
course of further observation, I find that reserve is not the
characteristic of the Spanish belles, who are, in general, very
handsome, with large black eyes, and very fine forms.' ...
The elder of the two ladies presented Byron with a tress of her hair,
measuring about three feet in length, and begged a lock of his
lordship's hair in return.
I have already mentioned Blanco White, who was born in Seville, and
wrote _Letters from Spain_, in the name of Leucadio Doblado. His
reminiscences should be read for the pictures of Sevillian society, in
the early part of this century. White's _Life_, by J. H. Thorn, was
published in London, in 1845.
Théophile Gautier spent some time in the city, and related his
impressions in his _Voyage en Espagne_, which is the most ably written
of all books upon Spanish places and people. The author of _Mademoiselle
de Maupin_ excels in his descriptions of Seville, its monuments,
paintings, and its life and character. He praises the charms of
Sevillian _doñas_, declaring that they 'quite deserve the reputation for
beauty which they enjoy.'
The eccentric George Borrow came to Seville to distribute the
Scriptures, as an agent of the Bible Society. His experiences with the
clerical authorities of the city are recounted in _The Bible in Spain_.
It is not strange that the priests of 'the Spanish Rome' resented the
intrusion of the English Protestant missionary, and it was fortunate for
Borrow that the Inquisition days were of the past. Otherwise, he would
have suffered in the manner of the hapless Lutherans of Ponce de León's
time. As it was, the heretical _colporteur_ had seventy-six copies of
the New Testament confiscated. The books had been placed in the keeping
of a bookseller. Borrow was never timid. He went straight to the
ecclesiastical governor, and asked why the Testaments had been seized.
The dignitary's reply was that the books were 'corrupting,' and he
soundly reproved the audacious Protestant for venturing to disseminate
such dangerous literature in orthodox Seville.
George Borrow does not write in flattering terms of the Andalusians. He
says: 'I lived in the greatest retirement during the whole time that I
passed at Seville, spending the greater part of each day in study, or in
that half-dreamy state of inactivity which is the natural effect of the
influence of a warm climate. There was little in the character of the
people around to induce me to enter much into society. The higher class
of the Andalusians are probably upon the whole the most vain and foolish
of human beings.' ...
Such was Borrow's opinion of the society of Seville. He appeared to be
quite as contemptuous of the frivolous rich class as he was of most
scholars and literary men. Fashionable London was never able to
'lionise' Bohemian Borrow. He loved 'the wind on the heath,' the song of
the waves on the Norfolk coast, the purple _sierras_ of Spain, and the
company of those children of nature, the _Kaulos_ of Britain and the
_Zincalis_ of Castile. Elsewhere, however, in his writings, George
Borrow speaks highly of the Spaniards in general. It was the pretensions
of 'respectability,' whether in Spain or England, that called forth his
pungent sarcasms.
We must not forget that a famous prelate of the Roman Catholic Church,
Cardinal Wiseman, was born at Seville, in 1802.
It is perhaps not out of place in this chapter to allude to the
attraction that Seville has possessed for three great musical composers.
Mozart laid the scene of his _Don Juan_ and _Figaro_ in the city.
Bizet's _Carmen_ is concerned with Seville; and most famous of all in
local interest is Rossini's _Barber_. Rossini's opera is still popular
in Spain. I saw it acted by an excellent company at Córdova, in May
1902.
The dispersal of the cultured circle of Casa Pilatos would seem to mark
the hour of the beginning of the decline of literature and the arts in
Seville. We may feel astonishment that the writers of the Inquisition
times were able to publish any works save those of theology, church
history, or devotion. But we must remember that Pacheco was a cleric,
that Góngora was a priest, and that Rioja held a post in the Holy
Office. Antonio, the bibliographer, was a canon of the Cathedral, and
Cervantes was a staunch Catholic. These authors were safe; they were
either priests of the Church or sworn defenders of the faith.
Philosophers, scientific writers, and heterodox thinkers were unable to
survive their environment. New thought was stamped out as soon as it was
uttered, and it was seldom indeed that bold spirits dared to express
innovating opinion. The greatest writer could scarcely subsist upon the
earnings of his pen. He was forced, as in the case of Cervantes,
Calderon, and Lope de Vega, among many other authors, to enter the army.
The choice lay between the military and the ecclesiastic professions.
Outside of these no man possessed a status.
With the decline of literature in Spain, the teaching that science is an
evil spread everywhere. In the seventeenth century, on the authority of
Spanish historians, the arts had fallen into decay. At the same time the
trade of Seville greatly suffered. The city was reaping the harvest of
trouble sown by the Inquisition, with its disastrous proscriptions of
scientific inquiry, and its taboos upon learning and the arts. Not only
were Bibles burnt publicly in Seville and elsewhere, but secular books,
treating upon many subjects, were thrown to the flames, in the height of
the Inquisition fanaticism. At the end of the fifteenth century six
thousand volumes were thus destroyed at Salamanca. Such wanton acts
contributed to the causes that brought the downfall of Spain. When
Córdova, Granada and Seville were under the Saracen rule, the conquered
Christians were protected in their religious rights, and there was no
restraint upon knowledge. These cities possessed excellent schools and
huge libraries. The Arabic and Spanish languages were both spoken, and
there was an Arabian translation of the Bible. Unfortunately, the
Christians failed to profit by this example of rational tolerance when
they again came into power.
Classical learning was fostered in Seville by Antonio de Lebrixa, who
lectured in the University, about 1473. Lebrixa had studied for ten
years in Italy. He was opposed by the Sevillian clergy, who claimed sole
authority in instruction; but fortunately Lebrixa found favour with
influential persons, and so contrived to save himself from persecution.
Queen Isabella had lessons from the learned Lebrixa, who may be called
the Erasmus of Spain. But the royal tutor narrowly escaped the awful
punishments of the Holy Tribunal, under Deza, Archbishop of Seville, and
successor of Torquemada. The Inquisitor-General commanded the
manuscripts of Lebrixa to be seized, and accused him of heresy for
making corrections on the text of the Vulgate, and for his exposition of
passages of Scripture.
'The Archbishop's object,' wrote Lebrixa in an Apologia, 'was to deter
me from writing. He wished to extinguish the knowledge of the two
languages on which our religion depends; and I was condemned for
impiety, because, being no divine but a mere grammarian, I presumed to
treat of theological subjects. If a person endeavour to restore the
purity of the sacred text, and points out the mistakes which have
vitiated it, unless he will retract his opinions, he must be loaded with
infamy, excommunicated and doomed to an ignominious punishment!'
'Is it not enough that I submit my judgment to the will of Christ in the
Scriptures? Must I also reject as false what is as clear and evident as
the light of truth itself? What tyranny! to hinder a man, under the most
cruel pains, from saying what he thinks, though he express himself with
the utmost respect for religion! to forbid him to write in his closet or
in the solitude of a prison! to speak to himself, or even to think! On
what subject shall we employ our thoughts, if we are prohibited from
directing them to those sacred oracles which have been the delight of
the pious in every age, and on which they have meditated by day and by
night.'
Lebrixa here eloquently announces the right of the layman to translate
the Scriptures and to expound religion. He claims that liberty of
inquiry and of speech which belongs to every man. His case is typical of
the vast difficulties that encompassed all thinkers of his age.
Science and letters were not only hindered by the Church. Some of the
kings of Spain were hostile towards learning, while others were
apathetic. Carlos IV. instructed his Prime Minister to inform the heads
of universities that 'what His Majesty wanted was not philosophers, but
loyal subjects.' It was no uncommon custom of the inquisitors to enter
private libraries, and to carry away such books as they considered
heretical or dangerous.
In Seville, therefore, as elsewhere throughout Spain, institutions
tended to crush out the genius of authors, and to discourage philosophy
and science. We cannot wonder that Emilia Pardo Bazan, a modern Spanish
writer, should say: 'Perhaps our public is indifferent to literature,
especially to printed literature, for what is represented on the stage
produces more impression.' It has also been said that the upper classes
of Madrid would rather spend their money on fireworks or on oranges than
on a book.
But Spain possesses to-day four or five gifted novelists, who give their
readers true pictures of modern life and manners. Valdes and Galdos are
social influences. Their books are eagerly read and discussed by the
young intellectual spirits in whose earnestness lies the hope of Spain.