The earliest cancionero printed was at Saragossa, in 1492. It comprehended the works of Mena, Manrique, and six or seven other bards of less note. [22] A far more copious collection was made by Fernando del Castillo, and first published at Valencia, in 1511, under the title of "Cancionero General," since which period it has passed into repeated editions. This compilation is certainly more creditable to Castillo's industry, than to his discrimination or power of arrangement. Indeed, in this latter respect it is so defective, that it would almost seem to have been put together fortuitously, as the pieces came to hand. A large portion of the authors appear to have been persons of rank; a circumstance to which perhaps they were indebted, more than to any poetic merit, for a place in the miscellany, which might have been decidedly increased in value by being diminished in bulk. [23]
The works of devotion with which the collection opens, are on the whole the feeblest portion of it. We discern none of the inspiration and lyric glow, which were to have been anticipated from the devout, enthusiastic Spaniard. We meet with anagrams on the Virgin, glosses on the creed and pater noster, canciones on original sin and the like unpromising topics, all discussed in the most bald, prosaic manner, with abundance of Latin phrase, scriptural allusion, and commonplace precept, unenlivened by a single spark of true poetic fire, and presenting altogether a farrago of the most fantastic pedantry.
The lighter, especially the amatory poems, are much more successfully executed, and the primitive forms of the old Castilian versification are developed with considerable variety and beauty. Among the most agreeable effusions in this way, may be noticed those of Diego Lopez de Haro, who, to borrow the encomium of a contemporary, was "the mirror of gallantry for the young cavaliers of the time." There are few verses in the collection composed with more facility and grace. [24] Among the more elaborate pieces, Diego de San Pedro's "Desprecio de la Fortuna" may be distinguished, not so much for any poetic talent which it exhibits, as for its mercurial and somewhat sarcastic tone of sentiment. [25] The similarity of subject may suggest a parallel between it and the Italian poet Guidi's celebrated ode on Fortune; and the different styles of execution may perhaps be taken, as indicating pretty fairly the distinctive peculiarities of the Tuscan and the old Spanish school of poetry. The Italian, introducing the fickle goddess, in person, on the scene, describes her triumphant march over the ruins of empires and dynasties, from the earliest time, in a flow of lofty dithyrambic eloquence, adorned with all the brilliant coloring of a stimulated fancy and a highly finished language. The Castilian, on the other hand, instead of this splendid personification, deepens his verse into a moral tone, and, dwelling on the vicissitudes and vanities of human life, points his reflections with some caustic warning, often conveyed with enchanting simplicity, but without the least approach to lyric exaltation, or indeed the affectation of it.
This proneness to moralize the song is in truth a characteristic of the old Spanish bard. He rarely abandons himself, without reserve, to the frolic puerilities so common with the sister Muse of Italy,
"Scritta così come la penna getta,
Per fuggir l'ozio, e non per cercar gloria."
It is true, he is occasionally betrayed by verbal subtilties and other affectations of the age; [26] but even his liveliest sallies are apt to be seasoned with a moral, or sharpened by a satiric sentiment. His defects, indeed, are of the kind most opposed to those of the Italian poet, showing themselves, especially in the more elaborate pieces, in a certain tumid stateliness and overstrained energy of diction.
On the whole, one cannot survey the "Cancionero General" without some disappointment at the little progress of the poetic art, since the reign of John the Second, at the beginning of the century. The best pieces in the collection are of that date, and no rival subsequently arose to compete with the masculine strength of Mena, or the delicacy and fascinating graces of Santillana. One cause of this tardy progress may have been the direction to utility manifested in this active reign, which led such as had leisure for intellectual pursuits to cultivate science, rather than abandon themselves to the mere revels of the imagination.
Another cause may be found in the rudeness of the language, whose delicate finish is so essential to the purposes of the poet, but which was so imperfect at this period that Juan de la Encina, a popular writer of the time, complained that he was obliged, in his version of Virgil's Eclogues, to coin, as it were, a new vocabulary, from the want of terms corresponding with the original, in the old one. [27] It was not until the close of the present reign, when the nation began to breathe awhile from its tumultuous career, that the fruits of the patient cultivation which it had been steadily, though silently experiencing, began to manifest themselves in the improved condition of the language, and its adaptation to the highest poetical uses. The intercourse with Italy, moreover, by naturalizing new and more finished forms of versification, afforded a scope for the nobler efforts of the poet, to which the old Castilian measures, however well suited to the wild and artless movements of the popular minstrelsy, were altogether inadequate.
We must not dismiss the miscellaneous poetry of this period, without some notice of the "Coplas" of Don Jorge Manrique, [28] on the death of his father, the count of Paredes, in 1474 [29]. The elegy is of considerable length, and is sustained throughout in a tone of the highest moral dignity, while the poet leads us up from the transitory objects of this lower world to the contemplation of that imperishable existence, which Christianity has opened beyond the grave. A tenderness pervades the piece, which may remind us of the best manner of Petrarch; while, with the exception of a slight taint of pedantry, it is exempt from the meretricious vices that belong to the poetry of the age. The effect of the sentiment is heightened by the simple turns and broken melody of the old Castilian verse, of which perhaps this may be accounted the most finished specimen; such would seem to be the judgment of his own countrymen, [30] whose glosses and commentaries on it have swelled into a separate volume. [31]
I shall close this survey with a brief notice of the drama, whose foundations may be said to have been laid during this reign. The sacred plays, or mysteries, so popular throughout Europe in the Middle Ages, may be traced in Spain to an ancient date. Their familiar performance in the churches, by the clergy, is recognized in the middle of the thirteenth century, by a law of Alfonso the Tenth, which, while it interdicted certain profane mummeries that had come into vogue, prescribed the legitimate topics for exhibition. [32]