post in the Inquisition, produced his comedies. The free and lawless drama of Spain was in the height of its glory during the reigns of the three Philips, which was precisely the period when the Inquisition exercised its power with the greatest rigour and the most sanguinary cruelty. But a general and uniform cultivation of the different powers of the human mind could not now be looked for. The ban of the Inquisition was laid not only on religious truth, but on every kind of truth likely to enlarge the mind and to produce freedom of thought and intelligent investigation. 'No Spanish Copernicus or Galileo fixed or enlightened the solar system of Castile; no Bacon, with his inductive, experimental tests, did for nature what Descartes did for man; no Locke anatomised his understanding; no Vesalius was at freedom for his body.' The monstrous absurdities which the faithful were required, on the authority of the church, to believe, would soon have been called in question had such studies been tolerated. The literature of Spain is therefore almost absolutely barren during this period of all that deals with either intellectual phenomena or physical science. Even literary genius could not reach that maturity which always supposes a certain degree of freedom and harmony in the mental powers. Thoughts which might not be expressed for fear of the dungeon or the fagot were no materials for a poet's fancy; still less, because more closely allied to truth, was the eloquence of prose likely to flourish under this throne of ignorance and superstition. Forensic and pulpit eloquence, satirical poetry, and elegant didactic prose, hardly appeared at all, and the epic was perverted and misdirected. But while the higher ranges of thought were precluded, a wide field still remained open; the nation was allowed to run riot in a world of imagination; and poetic genius, forced to employ itself chiefly on the drama, and the lighter forms of lyric verse, seemed to grow exuberant and lawless from feeling that here alone was freedom. Doubtless some of the men whose genius would have adorned the best days of Spain, perceived the limits within which they were confined with a sense of discouragement and degradation; others, in the spirit of loyalty and religious fervour, gave up their mental freedom with cheerfulness; and perhaps there were some lighthearted enough not even to feel the restraints imposed on them; but it is not the less true that the hard limits were there, and that the sacrifice of the best elements of the national greatness was the result. The Spaniards of the sixteenth century cheerfully surrendered their civil and religious liberty, and they lost at the same time their public and private virtues, their previous humanity and good faith, their commerce, their population, and their agriculture. In return, they acquired military renown, and the hatred of the nations among whom they carried their arms. Ere a century elapsed, the dreadful results became apparent, even in the literature of the country: but our task for the present is briefly to survey what may be termed the brilliant era of Spain. INTRODUCTION OF THE ITALIAN STYLE. BOSCAN. After the union of Arragon and Castile, the seat of government was transferred to Madrid; the Castilian began to be the language of all Spain; and the Catalan, Limosin, or Provençal, though still preserved in the legal proceedings of the Arragonese, and used amongst the common people, was abandoned by authors and poets for the language of the court. It was from among those who thus gave up the native dialect of Arragon for that of Castile, that an individual arose to produce an entire revolution in Castilian poetry. He probably found that of Italy more analogous to the Provençal, to which he had been accustomed from infancy; and he had most likely never become strongly attached to the harmony of Castilian verse or the spirit of Castilian poetry. Certain it was, he was possessed of a graceful delicacy of style, and a richness of imagination, which enabled him to introduce a more refined taste, and to give his own personal feelings an ascendancy over those of a whole nation. The name of this author was Juan Boscan Almogaver. He belonged to one of the patrician families of Barcelona, and was born in that city in the year 1500. Though possessing a liberal education, and sufficient fortune to enable him to gratify his literary tastes without regard to pecuniary considerations, yet, in his first outset in life, he embarked in the military profession. He afterwards spent some time in foreign travel; but the countries he visited are not mentioned in the brief notices we have of his history. If, however, it be supposed that he went at this time to Italy, and gained an acquaintance with the literature of that country, it appears that he was still far from entertaining the idea of transplanting either the forms or spirit of Italian poetry into Spain. The verses which he wrote in early life were all in the ancient Castilian style, which had undergone little improvement since the days of Juan de Mena. After having distinguished himself at the court of Charles V., he made a happy marriage, and settled in his native city about the year 1526. It was at this time that he became acquainted with Andrea Navagiero, then ambassador from the Venetians to the emperor, and received from him, if not the classical taste which then reigned in Italy, at least the idea of imitating the Italian poetry in the Castilian language. His friend Garcilaso de la Vega joined him in this new project. Both were distinguished for their correct and graceful style, and both despised the clamour which was raised against them by the adherents of the old national forms, reproaching them with endeavouring to imbue a valiant nation with the effeminate tastes of a conquered people. Their party rapidly increased, and they soon found themselves so completely in possession of public opinion, that they overturned all the laws of Castilian versification, and introduced new ones, founded on a system diametrically opposed to that which had hitherto prevailed. The ancient Castilian measure was always composed of long syllables preceding short ones- -in fact of four successive trochees; but Boscan introduced iambics, and the lines thus consisted of short syllables preceding long ones, or rather unaccented syllables preceding accented ones. Then as to the number of the syllables, the redondilla seldom contained more than six or eight in each line, and the 'versos de arte mayor' twelve. Boscan superseded both these forms by the Italian heroic verse of five iambics, or ten syllables and a mute. When we remember that the greater part of the ancient Spanish romances were never rhymed, but merely terminated in asonantes, it is curious to see a nation consenting to the loss of a harmonious measure in which they had always delighted, and suddenly adopting one so different from that to which they had been accustomed. Boscan held for a time the office of Ayo, or principal governor of the young Don Fernando de Alva, too well known in history as the Duke of Alva, the cruel ally of Spanish despotism and popish superstition. It appears, however, that the poet soon resigned this employment to cultivate literary pursuits, and to enjoy the society of his family and friends. He died among them in a pleasant retreat some time before the year 1544. He had prepared for the press a collection of his poems, to which he had added those of his friend Garcilaso; but they were not published till after his death. The first volume contains his early productions, which are scarcely distinguished by any trace of superior delicacy or correctness from numerous poems of the same kind in the 'Cancionero General.' The author, indeed, intended to suppress these youthful effusions altogether; but his friend Garcilaso prevailed on him to change his mind, declaring that he received from these poems the same kind of pleasure that he felt in looking at pretty children. The second volume contains sonnets in the Italian style, all betraying, in a greater or less degree, the disciple of Petrarch, while the spirit of Castilian poetry is dominant throughout. Though the language seldom equals the sweetly-flowing melody of its model, yet the precision of the Tuscan bard is imitated with much success. In depicting the passions, the shadows are charged with stronger colours than the Italian Petrarchists of the sixteenth century allowed themselves to employ. In order to please the Spanish taste, it was necessary that the expression of love should be glowing and impetuous. At the same time, Reason must deliver her precepts amidst the storms of passion, were it only to prove its force by her feebleness. This mixture of impetuosity with moral gravity presents a striking contrast to the mild enthusiasm and careless gaiety of Italy. But so far as these peculiarities of the Spanish character allowed the experiment to go, it is considered that the fascinating tone of Petrarch has been very happily seized by Boscan, and that he has sometimes even surpassed him in the expression of the tender passion. 6 The greater part of the third volume is occupied by a free translation of the Greek poem of 'Hero and Leander;' and the metrical form chosen for this work is that of rhymeless iambics, or an imitation of the blank verse of the Italians-a kind of composition quite new to the Spanish language. Next occurs the Capitulo,' as it is called-a love elegy, abounding in pleasing thoughts and images, but, on the whole, too much spun out, like most Italian poems of a similar nature. It has also its full share of genuine Spanish hyperbole and amorous despair. There are also some epistles in tercets, the best of them being the 'Answer to Don Diego de Mendoza,' who was himself the first epistolary poet among the Spaniards, and whom we shall soon notice more at length. The descriptions here given of domestic and rural life are exquisitely delicate, and possess much more interest than the moral reflections, though these are noble, unaffected, and conceived in the true spirit of didactic poetry :— Conjugal Happiness. A new and happy being is my lot Others have come and gone in my affection, You smile, my friend, but these indeed are facts. With sad bread laden, which in haste I ate, So sweetly ordered, cheered by smiles so bland, But never found, is mine through woman's love; And whether foolish thoughts, or painful traces With gentle finger all I would efface, Inscribing what is wise and holy in their place. Thus pass we in the town our happy days; As for ourselves-here, like the great Apollo, Or Venus, who in such a rustic place, Meeting Adonis, found herself in straits Not soon escaped, as ancient verse relates ; And as did Bacchus, 'mid the mountains free, Forget in sleep the pangs of jealousy; And as 'tis said the Dryads in the trees With gambols strive the graceful fawns to please ;— |