SPAIN
199
SPAIN
we see a genuinely dramatic spirit; he was an actor,
plajTvright, and theatrical manager and understood
fully how to appeal to a popular audience, as he clearly
did in his pasos, or comic interludes, dc.iling with popu-
lar types. After him the dramatists became legion
in number; it would be tedious and futile to enumerate
them all ; only the more prominent and successful need
engage our attention.
Juandc laCueva (about 1550-1609) brings historical and legendary subjects upon the boards; Cervantes (1547-1616), contrary to the real bent of his genius, seeks dramatic laurels; Lope de Vega (1562-1635), Tirso de Molina (Gabriel Tellez, 1571-1658), Calder6n (1600-81), Guillen de Castro (1569-1631), Ruiz de Al- arc6n (about 1.581-1639), Rojas Zorrilla (about 1590- 1660), and INIoreto (1618-1669) bring imperishable fame to the Spanish theatre and make it one of the most marvellously original and fascinating in the his- tory of the world. Love of the Catholic religion and glorification of its practices, blind loyalty to the mon- arch and exaltation of the feeling called the point of honour, are among the leading characteristics animat- ing the thousands of plays composed by these and lesser spirits. For the individual merits and defects of the chief ^Titers reference may be had to the separate articles dealing with them. To us not the least at- tractive category of the plays is that dealing with living manners of the time (cnmedias de capa y espada), in the production of which Lope de Vega was the most successful. The form of the religious play called the aiito sacramental (Eucharistic play) was carried to the height of its perfection by Calder6n. It should be said that this enormous dramatic output is almost invariably in verse, and every single play interweaves in its make-up a considerable number of the possible measures. It was in this century, too, that PYancisco de Guzman wrote his "Triunfos morales" and "Flor de sentcncia.s de sabios" (1557).
Of the prose compositions of the age, the novel and talc are the most brilliant. The novels of chivalry continue to be wTitten down to the end of the sixteenth century, but already at the end of the first quarter of that period they encounter a formidable rival in the extremely realistic novel of roguery (nnvela picaresca) or picaroon romance, the first and greatest example of which is the "Lazarillo de Tonnes" which some scholars would deny to Hurtado de Mendoza, already mentioned as an Italianate. This record of the kna- vish deeds and peregrinations of a social outcast is paralleled at about 1602 by the "Guzmdn de Alfar- ache" of Mateo Alemdn (about 1.548-1609), after which come the accoimt of the female rogue contained in the "Picara Justina" (1605) of the Toledan phy- sician L6pez de Ubeda, the "Busc6n" (also called Pablo, el Gran Tacailo, about 1608) of Quevedo — the second best of its kind — and the "Marcos de Obre- g6n" (1618) of Vicente Espinel. As the novel of roguery continued to be written, the element of ad- venturous travel became more ])rominent in it. There were many tale-tellers dealing with a matter-of-fact world never so good a.s it ought to be: notable among them were Timoncda, whose anecdotes come from Italian models, Salas Barbadillo, Castillo Sol6r- zano, and Maria de Zayas, all of whom are greatly surpassed by Cervantes in his " Xovelas ejemplares," to say naught of the "Don Quixote" (1605-15: see Cervantes Saavedra). Even more idealistic than the novel of chivalry is the pastoral romance, which, in the wake of the Italian Sannazzaro's "Arcadia" and the Portuguese Ribciro's imitation of it, makes its first and best a])pcarance in Spanish in the "Diana" (about 1.5.5S) of .lorgc <le Monteinayor (or MontemSr, since he w;is a Portuguese by birth). Two sequels were written, that of Gil Polo being of much merit: in general, however, the pastoral romance was a fashionable pastime and had no popular appe.al. Cervantes with his "Galatea" and Lope de Vega with
his "Arcadia" are two of the many attempting this
ultra-conventionalized literary form. There is one
worthy representative of the historical novel, the
"Guerraa civiles de Granada" of P^rez de Hita.
In philosophical speculation the Spaniards, though active enough, at least in the sixteenth century, have not shown great initiative in dealing with modern problems. Mysticism, nevertheless, has in- formed some of their best thinking spirits, several of whom used both prose and verse. Noteworthy among them are the illustrious St. Theresa (1515-82), St. John of the Cross (1542-91), Luis de Granada (c. 1504-88), and the noble poet and prose-writer, Luis de Le6n (1527-91). Luis de Le6n was of Sala- manca, at whose university he taught: at Seville an excellent poet was Fernando de Herrera (about 1534- 97), whose martial odes and sonnets, celebrating Lepanto and Don John of Austria, are illustrative of his muse. The best lyricists of this age, besides Le6n and Herrera, are Francisco de Rioja (1583-1659), Rodrigo Caro (1573-1647), and Francisco de Aldana, called by his contemporaries cl divino. Several efforts are made now to revive the epic: while Lope de Vega and Barahona de Soto vie with the Italians Ariosto and Tasso to but little purpose, Alonso de Ercilla (1533-94) alone, out of those celebrating recent or current heroic happenings, achieves real success. His "Araucana" turns upon the Spanish campaigns against the Araucanian Indians in South America. Besides the epic poem of Ercilla, there are three more worthy of mention: the "Bernardo" of B. de Bal- buena (1568-1627), the "Monserrat" of Crist6bal de Viruds (1548-1616), and the "Cristiada" of Diego de Hojeda (d. 1611), who won by his work the title of "The Spani-sh Klopstock". Pedro de la Cerda y Granada and Francisco de Enciso Monz6n are also authors of two epic poems on the life of Christ. The series of chronicles inaugurated back in the thirteenth century continues into the Golden Age, and in the work of the Jesuit Juan de Mariana (1537-1623) the dignity of real history-writing is achieved. He wrote his "Historia de Espaiia" in Latin and then trans- lated it into excellent Spanish. We find also excel- lent historians of this period in Alonso de Ovalle (1610-88), Martin de Roa (1561-1637), Luis de Guz- man (1543-1605), Jo.sc de Acosta (1539-1600), whose "Historia natural y moral de las Indias" has been highly praised by A. Humbolt; Antonio de Soils (161(>-88), author of the famous "Historia de Nueva Espaiia", Gonzalo de lUescas (d. 1569), who wrote a "Historia Pontifical", and Pedro de Rivadeneira (1526-1611), whose "Historia del Cisma de Ingla^ terra" was composed from most authentic docu- ments. Care must be taken not to regard as real history the "Marco Aurelio con el reloj de prlncipes" (1529) and the "Dc^cada de los C<^sarcs" (1539) of the Bishop Antonio de Guevara (died 1545). His "Epistolas familiares" (1539) and the "Marco Au- relio" (Dial of Princes) passed through a French ver- sion into English: without good re;ison the rise of euphuism in England has been attributed to imita- tion of the style of these works of Guevara.
Vices of style were, however, to become all too prominent and general in Spanish literature of the seventeenth century and to pervade verse and prose alike. The poetG6ngora (1,561-1627) gave currency to the literary excesses of style (bombast, obscu- rity, exuberance of tropes and metaphors, etc.) which is called Culteranism, or, aft it him, Gon- gorism, and they spread to all forms of composi- tion. To Gongorism above all other things may be ascribed the wretched decay in letters which en- sued upon the end of the seventeenth centurj': this canker-worm ate into the heart of literature and brought about its corruption. While even the great Lope de Vega and Cervantes (the many works of both of these are treated in eitenso in the articles dealing
