* * * * *
I have had occasion to advert more than once in the course of this chapter to the superficial acquaintance of the Spanish critics with the early history of their own drama, authentic materials for which are so extremely rare and difficult of access, as to preclude the expectation of anything like a satisfactory account of it out of the Peninsula. The nearest approach to this within my knowledge is made in an article in the eighth number of the American Quarterly Review, ascribed to Mr. Ticknor, late Professor of Modern Literature in Harvard University. This gentleman, during a residence in the Peninsula, had every facility for replenishing his library with the most curious and valuable works, both printed and manuscript, in this department; and his essay embodies in a brief compass the results of a well-directed industry, which he has expanded in greater detail in his lectures on Spanish literature, delivered before the classes of the University. The subject is discussed with his usual elegance and perspicuity of style; and the foreign, and indeed Castilian scholar, may find much novel information there, in the views presented of the early progress of the dramatic and the histrionic art in the Peninsula.
Since the publication of this article, Moratin's treatise, so long and anxiously expected, "Orígenes del Teatro Español," has made its appearance under the auspices of the Royal Academy of History, which has enriched the national literature with so many admirable editions of its ancient authors. Moratin states in his Preface, that he was employed from his earliest youth in collecting notices, both at home and abroad, of whatever might illustrate the origin of the Spanish drama. The results have been two volumes, containing in the First Part an historical discussion, with ample explanatory notes, and a catalogue of dramatic pieces from the earliest epoch down to the time of Lope de Vega, chronologically arranged, and accompanied with critical analyses, and copious illustrative extracts from pieces of the greatest merit. The Second Part is devoted to the publication of entire pieces of various authors, which from their extreme rarity, or their existence only in manuscript, have had but little circulation. The selections throughout are made with that careful discrimination, which resulted from poetic talent combined with extensive and thorough erudition. The criticisms, although sometimes warped by the peculiar dramatic principles of the author, are conducted in general with great fairness; and ample, but not extravagant, commendation is bestowed on productions, whose merit, to be properly appreciated, must be weighed by one conversant with the character and intellectual culture of the period. The work unfortunately did not receive the last touches of its author, and undoubtedly something may be found wanting to the full completion of his design. On the whole, it must be considered as a rich repertory of old Castilian literature, much of it of the most rare and recondite nature, directed to the illustration of a department, that has hitherto been suffered to languish in the lowest obscurity, but which is now so arranged that it may be contemplated, as it were, under one aspect, and its real merits accurately determined.
It was not till some time after the publication of this History, that my attention was called to that portion of the writings of Don Martinez de la Rosa, in which he criticizes the various departments of the national literature. This criticism is embodied in the annotations and appendix to his elegant "Poetica" (Obras Literarias, (Paris, 1827,) tom. i. ii.) The former discuss the general laws, by which the various kinds of poetry are to be regulated; the latter presents a very searching and scientific analysis of the principal productions of the Spanish poets, down to the close of the last century. The critic exemplifies his own views by copious extracts from the subjects of his criticism, and throws much collateral light on the argument by illustrations borrowed from foreign literature. In the examination of the Spanish drama, especially comedy, which he modestly qualifies as a "succinct notice, not very exact," he is very elaborate; and discovers the same taste and sagacity in estimating the merits of individual writers, which he had shown in discussing the general principles of the art. Had I read his work sooner, it would have greatly facilitated my own inquiries in the same obscure path; and I should have recognized, at least, one brilliant exception to my sweeping remark on the apathy manifested by the Castilian scholars to the antiquities of the national drama.
FOOTNOTES
[1] Eichhorn, Geschichte der Kultur und Litteratur der Neueren Europa, (Göttingen, 1796-1811,) pp. 129, 130.—See also the conclusion of the Introduction, Sec. 2, of this History.
[2] Nic. Antonio seems unwilling to relinquish the pretensions of his own nation to the authorship of this romance. (See Bibliotheca Nova, tom. ii. p. 394.) Later critics, and among them Lampillas, (Ensayo Historico- Apologético de la Literatura Española, (Madrid, 1789,) tom. v. p. 168,) who resigns no more than he is compelled to do, are less disposed to contest the claims of the Portuguese. Mr. Southey has cited two documents, one historical, the other poetical, which seem to place its composition by Lobeira in the latter part of the fourteenth century beyond any reasonable doubt. (See Amadis of Gaul, pref.,—also Sarmiento, Memorias para la Historia de la Poesía y Poetas Españoles, Obras Posthumas, (Madrid, 1775,) tom. i. p. 239.) Bouterwek, and after him Sismondi, without adducing any authority, have fixed the era of Lobeira's death at 1325. Dante, who died but four years previous to that date, furnishes a negative argument, at least, against this, since, in his notice of some doughty names of chivalry then popular, he makes no allusion to Amadis, the best of all. Inferno, cantos v., xxxi.
[3] The excellent old romance "Tirante the White," Tirant lo Blanch, was printed at Valencia in 1490. (See Mendez, Typographia Española, tom. i. pp. 72-75.) If, as Cervantes asserts, the "Amadis" was the first book of chivalry printed in Spain, it must have been anterior to this date. This is rendered probable by Montalvo's prologue to his edition at Saragossa, in 1521, still preserved in the royal library at Madrid, where he alludes to his former publication of it in the time of Ferdinand and Isabella. (Cervantes, Don Quixote, ed. Pellicer, Discurso Prelim.)
Mr. Dunlop, who has analyzed these romances with a patience that more will be disposed to commend than imitate, has been led into the error of supposing that the first edition of the "Amadis" was printed at Seville, in 1526, from detached fragments appearing in the time of Ferdinand and Isabella, and subsequently by Montalvo, at Salamanca, in 1547. See History of Prose Fiction, vol. ii. chap. 10.
[4] The following is Montalvo's brief prologue to the introduction of the first book. "Aqvi comiença el primero libro del esforçado et virtuoso cauallero Amadis hijo del rey Perion de Gaula; y dela reyna Elisena: el qual fue coregido y emendado por el honrado y virtuoso cauallero Garciordoñes de Montalvo, regidor dela noble uilla de Medina del campo; et corregiole delos antiguos originales que estauan corruptos, et compuestos en antiguo estilo: por falta delos diferentes escriptores. Quitando muchas palabras superfluas; et poniendo otras de mas polido y elegante estilo: tocantes ala caualleria et actos della, animando los coraçones gentiles de manzebos belicosos que con grandissimo affetto abrazan el arte dela milicia corporal animando la immortal memoria del arte de caualleria no menos honestissimo que glorioso." Amadis de Gaula, (Venecia, 1533,) fol. 1.