Tengo por suerte mas buena
mostrar mi lingua á ser muda,
que estando la gloria en duda
no estara cierta la pena
y aunque con disimular
se desiguala,
tengo por mejor callar,
que no esperar
que me envie noramala."
[105]Viardôt, in his life of Cervantes, mentions that Vicente Espinel became his enemy. I have not discovered on what he grounds this assertion. In the postscript to the "Voyage to Parnassus", one of the latest of Cervantes's works, he feigns that Apollo sent messages to various Spanish poets "You will give my compliments," the God writes, "to Vicente Espinel, as to one of the oldest and truest friends I have."
"Amada Palomilla,
¿ de dónde, di, ú adonde
vienes con tanta prisa,
vas con tantos olores?
¿ Pues a ti que te importa?
Sabras que Anacreonte
me envía a su Batílo,
Señor de todo el orbe:
que como por un himno
me emancipo Dione:
nómbrome su page,
y el por tal recibióme.
Suyas son estas cartas,
suyos estos renglones,
por lo qual me prometo
libertad quando torno.
Pero yo no la quiero,
ni quiero que me ahorre;
porque¿ de que me sirve
andar cruzando montes
comer podridas bacas,
ni pararme en los robres?
A mi pues me permite
el mismo Anacreonte
comer de sus viandas,
beber de sus licores:
Y quando vien brindada
doy saltos voladores,
le cubro con mis alas,
y el dulce las acoge.
Su citara es mi cama,
sus cuerdas mis colchones,
en quien suavamente
duermo toda la noche.
Mi historia es esta, amigo,
pero queda á los dioses,
que me has hecho parlera
mas que graja del bosque."
[GONGORA]
1561-1627.
Don Luis de Gongora y Argote was born at Cordova on the 11th July 1561. His father was don Francisco de Argote, corregidor of Cordova, his mother was donna Leonor de Gongora, both of ancient and distinguished noble families; and, as the name of his father was equally patrician with that of his mother, his having given preference to the latter has excited surprise among his Spanish biographers. At the age of fifteen he entered the university of Salamanca, and studied the law; but his inclination led him rather to the cultivation of poetry and general literature; and while at Salamanca, he wrote many amatory, satirical, and burlesque poems. At this time he had so severe an illness, that for three days he was believed to be dead, and his resuscitation was regarded almost as a miracle.
He passed his early life at Cordova, known and esteemed as a poet and a man of talent. His spirit was high, his character ardent and penetrating, and his pen ready, so that he was induced to indulge in personal satire, a circumstance which in after years he deeply regretted; and he changed so much that a friend of his writes, "he became the most ingenuous, candid, and unoffending man in conversation and writing that Spain ever saw." At the age of forty-five he took holy orders, and soon after visited Madrid, invited by several nobles who, esteeming his worth, and regretting his slender means, believed that he would there be enabled to increase them. But though he frequented the society of the great, he was but slightly benefited. However, through the patronage of the duke of Lerma and the marques de Siete Iglesias, he was named honorary chaplain to Philip III. He was held in much esteem by those nobles who cultivated literature, on account of his great talents; and he founded a sort of school of literature whose disciples were bigoted, zealous, and intolerant.
He thus wasted eleven years at court, not deceived by vain hopes, for his experienced understanding prevented his entertaining any such illusions, but forced by necessity. He was then taken suddenly and dangerously ill, while attending on the king in a journey to Valentia, away from all his friends; the queen, however, hearing of his illness, sent a physician to attend him. His head was attacked in a manner not so much to destroy reason, as to take from him all memory; and in this manner he continued lost to the end of his life. At one time, during a short interval of comparative health, he returned to Cordova that he might be buried in his native place. Not long after he died, on the 24th May, 1627, at the age of sixty-six.
In person Gongora was tall and robust, his face large, his eyes penetrating and lively, his whole appearance venerable, though severe and adust, hearing marks of the causticity and satire of his disposition, which however softened as he grew older. He was a disappointed man. His talents, his understanding, the grasp of mind of which he felt himself capable, nourished an internal ambition, which being ungratified, turned to discontent. It was some satisfaction to his imperious disposition to found a school of poetry, and attack the chief writers of the day, Cervantes and Lope de Vega, the Argensolas and Quevedo, in reply to their just criticisms on his inflated and tortuous style; and it was balm to his pride to hear the applause of his followers. But it is greatly to his discredit that, while heretofore the disputes of the Spanish poets with regard to literature were conducted with temper, and for the most part with urbanity, Gongora indulged in scurrility and abuse. His excuse, Sedano tells us, is, that this sort of insolence was the fruit of youthful arrogance: yet, as he was a year older than Lope, and contemporary with most of the others, he could not have been so very young when he entered the lists against them. However, as he grew older, visited Madrid, went to court, and took orders, he threw off the presumption he nourished in his native town, and became gentle, humane, and modest, and regretted his former excesses of temper.