SPALATO-MACARSCA
207
SPALATO-MACARSCA
author of "Prometeo" and "Atlantida", is one of the
foremost of the recent poets of South America and
probably the best poet that the Argentine Repubhc
has yet produced. For poetic technic he harks back
to ^'ictor Hugo; his philoaiphy is thai of modern
progress; everywhere his verse is redolent of patriotic
fervency. The "Atldntida" is a hymn to the future
of the Latin race in America. Occasional incorrect-
ness of diction mars his works. Rafael Obligado
(1852 ) is more correct and elegant than Andrade,
but he is not equal to him in inspiration. He delights in poetical descriptions of the beauties of nature and in the legendary tales of his native land.
To the literary activity of Uruguay it is hardly necessary to devote a separate section, since geo- graphical contiguity and other circumstances have bound up the history of the two lands. However, mention should be made of several writers as pecul- iarly Uruguayan. Bartolome Hidalgo with his " Dia- logos entre Chano y Contreras" (1822) really began the popular gaucho literature of the region of the Rio dc la Plata. Francisco Acuna Figueroa (1790-1862) wrote in pure Spanish and, though his original lyrics do not soar to any poetical heights, he had some suc- cess in his versions of Biblical songs and odes of Horace. Many poets of modest power were prompted to indite poems when the romantic wave struck the land. A celebrity of recent times is Juan Zorrilla San MartJn, the author of the epic poem "Tabard" (Montevideo, 1888), which in certain respects has been compared to the famous Brazilian epic composi- tion of Araujo Porto-Alegre. A novelist of the more immediate period is Carlos Maria Ramirez, the author of '"Los amores de Marta".
Central America. — Scant is the output of the terri- tory called Central America, and for this climatic and political considerations may easily be alleged. The Republic of Guatemala has surpassed the other Cen- tral American states in literary energy. The literary pioneer here is the Jesuit Rafael Landivar, who, e.\- pellcd from Spain by the cruel edict of 1767, came to the Xew World and there anticipated Bello's Georgic composition with his Latin "Rusticatio Mexicana" which in diction and terms of description presents praiseworthy pictures of Central-American rustic life as he saw it. The Guatemalan Jose Batres y Mon- tdfar (1809-44) tried his hand at narrative verse, emulating both the Italian Casti and the Englishman Byron. Romantic sentinientalism prevails in the IjTics of Juan Dieguez. The most interesting figure among the Central- American men of letters is Ruben Dario (b. 1864), a Nicaraguan who has lived much abroad and has cosmopolite and eclectic principles. He ia an artist both in prose and in verse and has already his disciples among the Spanish-American writers of the present generation.
Cuba. — In the Island of Cuba the development given to literature in Spanish has been late but bril- liant. Nothing cultural of real importance and de- serving record occurred before the eighteenth century when, Dy a Bull of Innocent XIII, the LIniversity of Havana was established in 1721. A printing-press had been set up at Santiago de Cuba as early as 1698, but i^s activity was short-lived; it was re-established by 1792. At about this latter date periodical litera- ture began. Properly speaking, the two first poets in Cuba are Manuel de Zequcira y Arango (1760-1846), who cultivated both the bucolic and the heroic ode, and Maiuiel Justo de Rubalcava (1769-1805), whose IjTic worth was proclaimed in Spain by Lista and in France and England by several crit ics. Cuba's great- est poet and the peer of Bello and Olmedo is Josd Maria Heredia (1803-39). Exiled beoau.se of his association with the party hostile to the Spanish rule, he spent a brief period in the United States and went to Mexico, where he rose to a place of great impor- tance in the judiciary. Despite the brevity of his life
his verse is imperishable. A gentle melancholy per-
vades his lyrics, which are full of love for his native
isle, forbidden to him. A keen sympathy with the
moods of external nature is clear in some of his writ-
ings, e. g. his poems "En una tempestad", "Niag-
ara", and "Al Sol", and makes him akin to the
romanticists. The American landscape inspires also
his beautiful "En el Teocalli de Cholula", which
records as well the perishability of all the handiwork
of man. His language and verse, although not at all
impeccable, are in general satisfactory; the expression
of his thought, free as it is from turgidity, appeals
inevitably.
After Heredia six other Cuban poets of decided worth require notice; they are Avellaneda, Pldcido, Milan(5s, Mendive, Luaces, and Zenea. Gertrudis G6mez de Avellaneda (1814-73) went to Spain about her twentieth year and there produced the lyrics, dramas, and novels that have made her justly famous throughout the Spanish-speaking territory. So great was her vogue in Spain that she was elected to mem- bership in the Spanish Academy in which, however, she was prevented from taking her seat because it was discovered that the regulations forbade her entrance. Her career belongs to the history of Span- ish literature. PMcido is the pseudonym of Gabriel de la Concepci6n Vald6s (1809-44), a mulatto who triumphed over the rigours of fate, which deprived his youth of most of the advantages of education, and succeeded in composing verse which, if often incorrect in the preserved form, still bears the impress of genius. His best remembered lyric is the "Ple- garia d Dios", written while he was under sentence of death for complicity in a conspiracy against the Spanish government in which he really had no part. Soft, melancholy strains or stirring patriotic notes resound throughout the verse of the other four poets mentioned: Jos6 Jacinto Milan(s (1814-63); Rafael Maria Mendive (1847-86); Joaquin Lorenzo Luaces (1826-67); and Juan Clemente Zenea (1832-71). Milands attempted the drama with some degree of good fortune. The novel has been cultivated more or less felicitously by Cirilo ViOaverde ("Cecilia Valdes", 1838-1882) and Ram6n Meza. A literary critic of undoubted distinction is Enrique Pineyro, whose essays are received with acclaim in Europe and everywhere. By way of record it may be said that Porto Rico and Santo Domingo ha\e not yet pro- duced writers comparable to those listed for the other lands. In our own days, however, Jo.s6 Gautier Benitez of Porto Rico and Fabio Fialloa of Santo Domingo have met with praise for their verse.
Menendez t Pelato, Anfolofita de Poelas Hispano-Americanoa (Madrid, 1893-95), selections with critiriil introductions: Ruxco Gabc! A, La lileralura espafml; ■' .1 .,/ -, Xl\, pi ):i Miidrid, 1894); Valera, rarta.somcM,.' Is.'. «■ , 1 1 1 1 i -/;,/... ca- tanos (Boston. 1901); Oicci-zn. I ; ' ; ' " fi'io;
MendiBURU, Dirrunmrio In-:^ ' ■ ' / - ' '/ il.ima,
1874); GcTiEHiii /, 1",-.-: ,. ;, . ■ . \ ni: ,i , ... 1 - I'.i; Hkrbera, Lileratura '■ ' i^'" M' i \ ' i forico-critica
sobre la pori ■ ' .'i -! L ■■ ' i,, l s'l.f) ; CaiSete,
Escnlorrs r.;.:- '. ' 'l , , ISS4); VaR-
OARf, //.. :....., \ : , Im;7);
A.Nt/, /'■ ■ I' ■:• ' I --' '"Oia
colnin' • • !■ ■' I- -. • ■ /.' ina
sp/,-„/, ,.,.:,/ .,-■,.,11 ,,■., IS'..;., l,v.,,M ,,.,,!, •! I I 'iria
(Bucno.s ,\ircs, 1SS3); Cfrrif.r. .S•^Mn^^/.-.l »...,,„„ I.tl.ralure in Catholic University Bulletin (May, 1911), 411-17.
J. D. M. Ford.
Spalato-Macarsca (Salon a), Diocese of (Spala- TE.Nsis ET M.^CARSCENSis), suffragan of Zara. Salona is the most sacred ground in the .Austrian monarchy, where Titus the pupil of St. Paul pn\ichr(l, where the followers of .lesus Christ first shed llieir blood as mar- tyrs, and where beautiful (■x:uni)lis of basilicas and other early Christian scul))turc linvc been discovered. Bvzantine art spread under Justinian 1 to the shores of the Adriatic Gulf, the baptistery in Salona dating from this period. Forty-seven bishops of Salona are known: Hesychius III is mentioned in the twentieth
