Handbook of Universal Literature, From the Best and Latest Authorities

by Anne C. Lynch Botta

The spirit of political tyranny in the government, and of religious tyranny in the Inquisition, now more than ever united, were more hostile to bold and faithful inquiry in the department of history than in almost any other. Still, the historians of this period were not unworthy of the national character. Their works abound in feeling rather than philosophy, and are written in a style that marks, not so much the peculiar genius of their authors, perhaps, as that of the country that gave them birth. Although they may not be entirely classical, they are entirely Spanish; and what they want in finish and grace they make up in picturesqueness and originality.

In one form of didactic composition, Spain stands in advance of other countries: that of proverbs, which Cervantes has happily called "short sentences drawn from long experience." Spanish proverbs can be traced back to the earliest times. Although twenty-four thousand have been collected, many thousands still remain known only among the traditions of the humbler classes of society that have given birth to them all.

From the early part of the seventeenth century, Spanish prose became infected with that pedantry and affectation already spoken of as Gongorism, or "the cultivated style;" and from this time, everything in prose as well as in poetry announced that corrupted taste which both precedes and hastens the decay of a literature, and which in the latter half of the seventeenth century was in Spain but the concomitant of a general decline in the arts and the gradual degradation of the monarchy. No country in Christendom had fallen from such a height of power as that which Spain occupied in the time of Charles V. into such an abyss of degradation as she reached when Charles II., the last of the house of Austria, ceased to reign. The old religion of the country, the most prominent of all the national characteristics, was now so perverted from its true character by intolerance that it had become a means of oppression, such as Europe never before witnessed. The principle of loyalty, now equally perverted and mischievous, had sunk into servile submission, and as we approach the conclusion of the century, the Inquisition and the despotism seem to have cast their blight over everything.

PERIOD THIRD.

THE ACCESSION OF THE BOURBON FAMILY TO THE PRESENT TIME (1700-1885).

1. FRENCH INFLUENCE ON THE LITERATURE OF SPAIN.—The death of Charles II., in 1700, was followed by the War of the Succession between the houses of Hapsburg and Bourbon, which lasted thirteen years. It was terminated by the treaty of Utrecht and the accession of Philip V., the grandson of Louis XIV. Under his reign the influence of France became apparent in the customs of the country. The Academy of Madrid was soon established in imitation of that of Paris, with the object of establishing and cultivating the purity of the Castilian language. The first work published by this association was a Dictionary, which has continued in successive editions to be the proper standard of the language. At this time French began to be spoken in the elegant society of the court and the capital, translations from the French were multiplied, and at last, a poetical system, founded on the critical doctrine of Boileau, prevalent in France, was formally introduced into the country by Luzan, in his "Art of Poetry," which from its first appearance (1737) exercised a controlling authority at the court, and over the few writers of reputation then to be found in the country. Though the works of Luzan offered a remedy for the bad taste which had accompanied and in no small degree hastened the decline of the national taste, they did not lay a foundation for advancement in literature. The national mind had become dwarfed for want of its appropriate nourishment; the moral and physical sciences that had been advancing for a hundred years throughout Europe, were forbidden to cross the Pyrenees. The scholastic philosophy was still maintained as the highest form of intellectual culture; the system of Copernicus was looked upon as contrary to the inspired record; while the philosophy of Bacon and the very existence of mathematical science were generally unknown even to the graduates of universities. It seemed as if the faculties of thinking and reasoning were becoming extinct in Spain.

2. THE DAWN OF SPANISH LITERATURE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.—The first effort for intellectual emancipation was made by a monk, Benito Feyjoo (1676-1764), who, having made himself acquainted with the truths brought to light by Galileo, Bacon, Newton, Leibnitz, and Pascal, devoted his life to the labor of diffusing them among his countrymen. The opposition raised against him only drew to his works the attention he desired. Even the Inquisition summoned him in vain, for it was impossible to question that he was a sincere and devout Catholic, and he had been careful not to interfere with any of the abuses sanctioned by the church. Before his death he had the pleasure of seeing that an impulse in the right direction had been imparted to the national mind.

One of the striking indications of advancement was an attack upon the style of popular preaching, which was now in a state of scandalous degradation. The assailant was Isîa (1703-1781), a Jesuit, whose "History of Friar Gerund" is a satirical romance, slightly resembling Don Quixote in its plan, describing one of those bombastic orators of the age. It was from the first successful in its object of destroying the evil at which it aimed, and preachers of the class of Friar Gerund soon found themselves without an audience.

The policy of Charles III. (1759-1788) was highly favorable to the progress of literature. He abridged the power of the Inquisition, and forbade the condemnation of any book till its writer or publisher had been heard in its defense; he invited the suggestion of improved plans of study, made arrangements for popular education, and raised the tone of instruction in the institutions of learning. Finally, perceiving the Jesuits to be the most active opponents of these reforms, he expelled them from every part of his dominions, breaking up their schools, and confiscating their revenues. During his reign, intellectual life and health were infused into the country, and its powers, which had been so long wasting away, were revived and renewed.

Among the writers of this age are Moratin the elder (1737-1780), whose poems are marked by purity of language and harmony of versification; and Yriarte (1750-1791), who was most successful in fables, which he applied, to the correction of the faults and follies of literary men. To this period may also be referred the school of Salamanca, whose object was to combine in literature the power and richness of the old writers of the time of the Philips with the severer taste then prevailing on the continent. Melendez (1754-1817), who was the founder of this school, devoted his muse to the joys and sorrows of rustic love, and the leisure and amusements of country life. Nothing can surpass some of his descriptions in the graceful delineation of tender feeling, and his verse is considered in sweetness and native strength, to be such a return to the tones of Garcilasso, as had not been heard in Spain for more than a century. Gonzalez (d. 1794), who, with happy success, imitated Luis de Leon, Jovellanos (1744-1811), who exerted great influence on the literary and political condition of his country, and Quintana (b. 1772), whose poems are distinguished by their noble and patriotic tone, are considered among the principal representatives of the school of Salamanca.