INTRODUCTION

#I. The Legend#. Constancy in love has inspired many writers and has given undying fame to many legends and traditions. Among the famous lovers that have passed into legend and that stand as the embodiment of constant love in different ages and in different countries,—Pyramus and Thisbe, Hero and Leander, Tristam and Isolde, Romeo and Juliet,—are to be found Marsilla and Isabel. These Lovers of Teruel, as constant as any of the others, are especially notable because of the purity of their love and because of the absence of violence in their sudden departure from this life. Disappointed love, desperate grief at separation, was the only cause of their death.

The old city of Teruel, founded by the Aragonese in the latter half of the twelfth century at the junction of the Guadalaviar and the Alfambra as a stronghold in the territory recently recovered from the Moors, was the fitting scene for the action of the legend…. The pioneer life of the city, the depth of sentiment and singleness of purpose of its Aragonese inhabitants, the crusading spirit that carried to victory the armies of Peter II of Aragón and his more famous son, James the Conqueror, lend probability to a legend that would ordinarily be considered highly improbable from the point of view of historical authenticity. Stripped of the fantastic details that have gathered about it in the many literary treatments given to it by Spanish writers, the legend may be briefly told. In Teruel, at the beginning of the thirteenth century, lived Juan Diego Martínez Garcés de Marsilla and Isabel de Segura. They had loved each other from childhood, but when it became a question of marriage, Isabel's father opposed the union because of the young man's lack of material resources and because a wealthy suitor, Rodrigo de Azagra, had presented himself for the hand of his daughter. All that the entreaties of the lovers could gain from him was the promise that if Marsilla went to the wars, gained fame and riches, and returned before a certain day, he would receive Isabel in marriage. This Marsilla did; but unfortunately he was unable to return until just after the expiration of the time set. When he reached Teruel, he found Isabel married to the wealthy rival. Disappointed in their hopes after so many years of constant love and continual struggle against adversity, Marsilla died of grief, and Isabel soon followed him; separated in life by cruel fate, they were united in death. Buried in the same tomb, they were later disinterred, and their mummified remains may now be seen in the old church of San Pedro in Teruel.

#II. Authenticity of the Legend#. The earliest references that have yet been found to the legend belong to the middle of the sixteenth century, that is, more than three centuries after the supposed death of the lovers. In 1555, when the church of San Pedro in Teruel was undergoing some repairs, two bodies, supposedly those of Marsilla and Isabel, were discovered in one tomb in a remarkably good state of preservation. They were reburied at the foot of the altar in the chapel of Saints Cosme and Damian, and the story of the unfortunate lovers began to spread far and wide. By the end of the century it was apparently widely known and attracted considerable attention to the old city of Teruel. When Philip III of Spain was journeying to Valencia in 1599 he was induced to turn aside to visit the church of San Pedro. In the official account of his journey, "Jornada de Su Majestad Felipe III y Alteza la Infanta Doña Isabel, desde Madrid, a casarse el Rey con la Reyna Doña Margarita, y su Alteza con el Archiduque Alberto," the story of the legend as then generally accepted is related so succinctly that it may well be quoted here: "En la iglesia de San Pedro, en la capilla de San Cosme y San Damián, de la dicha ciudad, está la sepultura de los Amantes que llaman de Teruel; y dicen eran un mancebo y una doncella que se querían mucho, ella rica y él al contrario; y como él pidiese por mujer la doncella y por ser pobre no se la diesen, se determinó a ir por el mundo a adquerir hacienda y ella aguardarle ciertos años, al cabo de los cuales y dos o tres días más, volvió rico y halló que aquella noche se casaba la doncella. Tuvo trazas de meterse debajo de su cama y a media noche le pidió un abrazo, dándose a conocer; ella le dijo que no podía por no ser ya suya, y él murió luego al punto. Lleváronle a enterrar, y ella fué al entierro, y cuando le querían echar en la sepultura, se arrimó a la ataúd y quedó allí muerta; y así los enterraron juntos en una sepultura, sabido el caso."

Seventeen years later a long epic poem by the secretary of the city council of Teruel, Juan Yagüe de Salas, aroused much discussion as to the authenticity of the legend. In 1619 the bodies were again exhumed and in the coffin of one of them were found written the words "Éste es Don Diego Juan Martínez de Marsilla"; also a document, "papel de letra muy antigua," giving the story in detail. This document disappeared, but the copy that Juan Yagüe claimed to have made may be seen in the archives of the church of San Pedro or in the transcription published in the Semanario Pintoresco for the week ending Feb. 5, 1837 (Vol. II, pages 45-47). The genuineness of the document and its copy is very doubtful. The first paragraph shows some linguistic peculiarities of old Aragonese; but these gradually disappear, until there is little left in the language to differentiate it from that of the good notary public and poet, Juan Yagüe, who was so anxious to prove authenticity for the legend treated in his poem. Although there is no reliable evidence that the bodies exhumed in 1555 and again in 1619 were those of Marsilla and Isabel, the church of San Pedro has held them in special reverence. They attract many admirers to the old city on the Guadalaviar and the tourist who expresses incredulity when shown the remains of the lovers becomes thereby persona non grata in Teruel.

For three centuries the controversy has continued and has resulted in the spilling of much ink. The most complete and authoritative study of the sources and growth of the legend is that of the eminent scholar Cotarelo y Mori (Sobre el origen y desarrollo de la leyenda de Los Amantes de Teruel, 2d edition, 1907). His conclusions support the theory that the legend is the result of the localization in Teruel of the story of the unfortunate Florentine lovers, Girolamo and Salvestra, as related by Boccaccio in his Decameron, Book IV, Novel 8. He refutes the arguments advanced by the supporters of the authenticity of the legend, calls attention to the suspicious nature of all the documents, and maintains the thesis that Boccaccio's story found its way into Spain toward the end of the fourteenth century and took the form of the legend of the Lovers of Teruel about the middle of the sixteenth century, at which time it first appeared definitely in Spanish literature. The majority of literary critics and historians accept Cotarelo y Mori's conclusions; others, however, refuse to give up the historic basis of the legend. They cannot deny, of course, the evident similarity of the stories; they explain it by saying that the story of the constant lovers who died in Teruel in 1217 was carried to Italy by Aragonese soldiers or merchants, was heard by the Italian novelist, and used by him as the basis for his story of Girolamo and Salvestra.