A History of Spanish Literature

by James Fitzmaurice-Kelly

No modern editor has had the spirit to reissue Martínez de Toledo's Corbacho, nor did even Ticknor possess a copy. The edition of Logroño (1529) is convenient. The Visión deleitable is in Rivadeneyra, vol. xxxvi. I know no later edition of Lucena's Vita Beata than that of Zamora, 1483.

CHAPTER VI

Hernando del Castillo's Cancionero General should be read in the fine edition (1882) published by the Sociedad de Bibliófilos Españoles; the Cancionero de burlas in Luis de Usoz y Río's reprint (London, 1841). The Marqués de la Fuensanta del Valle and D. José Sancho Rayón edited Lope de Stúñiga's Cancionero in 1872. While the present volume has been passing through the press, M. Foulché-Delbosc has, for the first time, published the entire text of the Coplas del Provincial in the Revue hispanique, vol. v. The Coplas de Mingo Revulgo, Cota's Diálogo, and Jorge Manrique's Coplas are best read in D. Marcelino Menéndez y Pelayo's Antología, vols. iii. and iv. An additional piece of Cota's, discovered by M. Foulché-Delbosc, has been printed in the Revue hispanique, vol. i.; and to D. Antonio Paz y Melia is due the publication of Gómez Manrique's Cancionero (1885). Iñigo de Mendoza and Ambrosio Montesino are represented in Rivadeneyra, vol. xxxv. Miguel del Riego y Núñez' edition of Padilla appeared at London in 1841 in the Colección de obras poéticas españolas. Pedro de Urrea's Cancionero (1876) forms the second volume of the Biblioteca de Escritores Aragoneses. Encina's Teatro completo has been admirably edited (1893) by Francisco Asenjo Barbieri: a suggestive and penetrating criticism by Sr. Cotarelo y Mori appeared in España Moderna (May 1894).

Palencia is to be studied sufficiently in his Dos Tratados (1876), arranged by D. Antonio María Fabié. The Crónica of Lucas Iranzo was given by the Academy of History (1853) in the Memorial histórico español. Amadís de Gaula is most easily read in Rivadeneyra, vol. xl., which is preceded by a very instructive preface, the work of Gayangos. The derivation of the Amadís romance is ably discussed from different points of view by Eugène Baret in his Études sur la redaction espagnole de l'Amadis de Gaule (1853); by Theophilo Braga in his Historia das novelas portuguezas de cavalleria (Porto, 1873); and by Ludwig Braunfels in his Kritischer Versuch über den Roman Amadís von Gallien (Leipzig, 1876). The fourth volume of Ormsby's Don Quixote (1885) contains an exhaustive bibliography of the chivalresque novels, most of which are both costly and worthless. Of the Celestina there are innumerable editions; the handiest is that in Rivadeneyra, vol. iii. A reprint of Mabbe's splendid English version (1631) was included by Mr. Henley in his Tudor Translations (1894). D. Marcelino Menéndez y Pelayo's brilliant essay on Rojas is reprinted in the second series of his Estudios de crítica literaria (1895). Bernáldez' Historia de los Reyes católicos (Granada, 1856) has been carefully produced by Miguel Lafuente y Alcántara. Pulgar's Claros Varones was inserted at the end of Llaguno y Amírola's edition of the Centón epistolario (1775). It is quite impossible to give any notion of the immense mass of literature concerning Columbus; but anything bearing the names of Martín Fernández de Navarrete or of Mr. Henry Harrisse is entitled to the greatest respect.

CHAPTER VII

M. Morel-Fatio's L'Espagne au 16^e et 17^e siécle (Heilbronn, 1878) is invaluable for this period and the succeeding century. Dr. Adam Schneider's Spaniens Anteil an der deutschen Litteratur des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts (Strassburg, 1898) is a work of immense industry, containing much curious information in a convenient form. English readers will find an excellent summary of the literary history of this time in Mr. David Hannay's Later Renaissance (1898).

Manuel Cañete, whose Teatro español del siglo XVI. (1885) is useful but ill arranged, included a single volume of Torres Naharro's Propaladia among the Libros de Antaño so long ago as 1880; the second is still to come, and those who would read this dramatist must turn to the rare sixteenth-century editions. Perhaps the best reprint of Gil Vicente is that issued at Hamburg in 1834 by José Victorino Barreto Feio and José Gomes Monteiro; a most complete account of Vicente, his environment and influence, is given by Theophilo Braga in the seventh volume of his learned Historia de la litteratura portuguesa (Porto, 1898). Boscán's Castilian version of the Cortegiano was reissued in 1873; the completest edition of his verse is that published by Professor Knapp (of Yale University), issued at Madrid in 1873. Professor Flamini's Studi di storia letteraria italiana e straniera (Livorno, 1895) contains a very scholarly essay on the debt of Boscán to Bernardo Tasso. The poems of Garcilaso are in Rivadeneyra, vols. xxxii. and xlii.; but a far pleasanter book to handle is Azara's edition (1765). Benedetto Croce's study entitled Intorno al soggiorno di Garcilaso de la Vega in Italia (1894) appeared originally in the Rassegna storica napoletana di lettere ed arte (a magazine which deserves to be better known in England than it is). Croce's researches have been printed apart, and we may look forward to his publishing others no less important. Jeremiah Holmes Wiffen's biography and translation of Garcilaso (1823) are defective, but nothing better exists in English. Few poets in the world have been so fortunate in their editors as Sâ de Miranda. Mme. Carolina Michaëlis de Vasconcellos' reprint (Halle, 1881), with its very learned apparatus of introduction, notes, and variants, is a real achievement unsurpassed in the history of editing. A fine edition of Gutierre de Cetina has been published (Seville, 1895) with a scholarly introduction by D. Joaquín Hazañas y la Rua. Acuña's works appeared at Madrid in 1804; his Contienda de Ayax is in the second volume of López de Sedano's Parnaso Español (1778). Concerning Mendoza, the reader may profitably turn to Charles Graux' Essai sur les origines du fona grec de l'Escorial (1880), published in the Bibliothèque de l'École des Hautes Études. Professor Knapp edited Mendoza's verses in 1877: a creditable piece of work, though inferior to his edition of Boscán. Castillejo and Silvestre are exampled in Rivadeneyra, vol. xxxii. Of Villegas' Inventario there is no modern reprint.

Guevara is sufficiently represented in Rivadeneyra, vol. lxv.; the English versions by Lord Berners, North, Fenton, Hellowes, and others, are of exceptional merit and interest.

The most important historians of the Indies are reprinted by Rivadeneyra, vols. xxii. and xxvi. Amador de los Ríos edited Oviedo for the Academy of History in 1851-55. Very full details concerning Cortés are given by Prescott in his classic book on Peru, and Sir Arthur Helps' Life of Las Casas (1868) is a pleasing piece of partisanship.

Lazarillo de Tormes should be read in Mr. Butler Clarke's beautiful reproduction of the princeps (1897). M. Morel-Fatio's essay in the first series of his Études sur l'Espagne (1895) is exceedingly ingenious, but, like all negative criticism, it is somewhat unconvincing. His guess that Lazarillo was written by some one connected with the Valdés clique does not seem very happy, but even a conjecture by M. Morel-Fatio carries great weight.