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MODERN SPANISH

LYRICS

_EDITED WITH INTRODUCTION, NOTES AND
VOCABULARY_

BY

ELIJAH CLARENCE HILLS, PH. D., LITT.D.
_Professor of Romance Languages in Colorado College_

AND

S. GRISWOLD MORLEY, PH. D.
_University of Colorado_

NEW YORK
HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY

1913

Page iii

PREFACE

The present volume aims to furnish American students of
Spanish with a convenient selection of the Castilian
lyrics best adapted to class reading. It was the intention
of the editors to include no poem which did not possess
distinct literary value. On the other hand, some of the
most famous Spanish lyrics do not seem apt to awaken the
interest of the average student: it is for this reason
that scholars will miss the names of certain eminent poets
of the _siglo de oro_. The nineteenth century, hardly
inferior in merit and nearer to present-day readers in
thought and language, is much more fully represented.
No apology is needed for the inclusion of poems by
Spanish-American writers, for they will bear comparison
both in style and thought with the best work from the
mother Peninsula.

The Spanish poems are presented chronologically, according
to the dates of their authors. The Spanish-American poems
are arranged according to countries and chronologically
within those divisions. Omissions are indicated by rows of
dots and are due in all cases to the necessity of bringing
the material within the limits of a small volume. Three
poems (the _Fiesta de toros_ of Moratin, the _Castellano
leal_ of Rivas and the _Leyenda_ of Zorrilla) are more
narrative than lyric. The _romances_ selected are Page iv
the most lyrical of their kind. A few songs have been
added to illustrate the relation of poetry to music.

The editors have been constantly in consultation in all
parts of the work, but the preparation of the _Prosody_,
the _Notes_ (including articles on Spanish-American
literature) and the part of the _Introduction_ dealing
with the nineteenth century, was undertaken by Mr. Hills,
while Mr. Morley had in charge the _Introduction_ prior
to 1800, and the _Vocabulary_. Aid has been received from
many sources. Special thanks are due to Professor J.D.M.
Ford and Dr. A.F. Whittem of Harvard University, Don
Ricardo Palma of Peru, Don Ruben Dario of Nicaragua, Don
Rufino Blanco-Fombona of Venezuela, Professor Carlos
Bransby of the University of California, and Dr. Alfred
Coester of Brooklyn, N.Y.

E.C.H.

S.G.M.

Page v

CONTENTS

PREFACE
INTRODUCTION:
I. Spanish Lyric Poetry to 1800
II. Spanish Lyric Poetry of the Nineteenth Century
III. Spanish Versification

ESPANA

ROMANCES:
Abenamar
Fonte-frida
El conde Arnaldos
La constancia
El amante desdichado
El prisionero
VINCENTE (GIL) (1470-1540?)
Cancion
TERESA DE JESUS (SANTA) (1515-1582)
Letrilla (que llevaba por registro en su breviario)
LEON (FRAY LUIS DE) (1527-1591)
Vida retirada
ANONIMO
A Cristo crucificado
VEGA (LOPE DE) (1562-1635)
Cancion de la Virgen
Manana
QUEVEDO (FRANCISCO DE) (1580-1645)
Epistola satirica al conde de Olivares
Letrilla satirica
VILLEGAS (ESTEBAN MANUEL DE) (1589-1669)
Cantilena: De un pajarillo
CALDERON DE LA BARCA (PEDRO) (1600-1681)
"Estas que fueron pompa y alegria,"
Consejo de Crespo a su hijo
GONZALEZ (FRAY DIEGO) (1733-1794)
El murcielago alevoso page vi
MORATIN (NICOLAS F. DE) (1737-1780)
Fiesta de toros en Madrid
JOVELLANOS (GASPAR M. DE) (1744-1811)
A Arnesto
MELENDEZ VALDES (JUAN) (1754-1817)
Rosana en los fuegos
QUINTANA (MANUEL JOSE) (1772-1857)
Oda a Espana, despues de la revolucion de marzo
SOLIS (DIONISIO) (1774-1834)
La pregunta de la nina
GALLEGO (JUAN NICASIO) (1777-1853)
El Dos de Mayo
MARTINEZ DE LA ROSA (FRANCISCO) (1787-1862)
El nido
RIVAS (DUQUE DE) (1791-1865)
Un castellano leal
AROLAS (PADRE JUAN) (1805-1849)
"Se mas feliz que yo"
ESPRONCEDA (JOSE DE) (1808-1842)
Cancion del pirata
A la patria
ZORRILLA (JOSE) (1817-1893)
Oriental
Indecision
La fuente
A buen juez, mejor testigo
TRUEBA (ANTONIO DE) (1821-1889)
Cantos de pajaro
La perejilera
SELGAS (JOSE) (1821-1882)
La modestia
ALARCON (PEDRO ANTONIO DE) (1833-1891)
El Mont-Blanc
El secreto
BECQUER (GUSTAVO A.) (1836-1870)
Rimas: II
VII
LIII
LXXIII page vii
QUEROL (VINCENTE WENCESLAO) (1836-1889)
En Noche-Buena
CAMPOAMOR (RAMON DE) (1817-1901)
Proximidad del bien
iQuien supiera escribir!
El mayor castigo
NUNEZ DE ARCE (GASPAR) (1834-1903)
iExcelsior!
Tristezas
iSursum Corda!
PALACIO (MANUEL DEL) (1832-1895)
Amor oculto
BARTRINA (JOAQUIN MARIA) (1850-1880)
Arabescos
REINA (MANUEL) (1860-)
La poesia

ARGENTINA

ECHEVERRIA (O. ESTEBAN) (1805-1851)
Cancion de Elvira
ANDRADE (OLEGARIO VICTOR) (1838-1882)
Atlantida
Prometeo
OBLIGADO (RAFAEL) (1852-)
En la ribera

COLOMBIA

ORTIZ (JOSE JOAQUIN) (1814-1892)
Colombia y Espana
CARO (JOSE EUSEBIO) (1817-1853)
El cipres
MARROQUIN (JOSE MANUEL) (1827-)
Los cazadores y la perrilla
CARO (MIGUEL ANTONIO) (1843-1909)
Vuelta a la patria page viii
ARRIETA (DIOGENES A.) (1848-)
En la tumba de mi hijo
GUTIERREZ PONCE (IGNACIO) (1850-)
Dolora
GARAVITO A. (JOSE MARIA) (1860-)
Volvere manana

CUBA

HEREDIA (JOSE MARIA) (1803-1839)
En el teocalli de Cholula
El Niagara
"PLACIDO" (GABRIEL DE LA CONCEPCION VALDES) (1809-1844)
Plegaria a Dios
AVELLANEDA (GERTRUDIS GOMEZ DE) (1814-1873)
A Washington
Al partir

ECUADOR

OLMEDO (JOSE JOAQUIN) (1780-1847)
La victoria de Junin

MEXICO

PESADO (JOSE JOAQUIN DE) (1801-1861)
Serenata
CALDERON (FERNANDO) (1809-1845)
La rosa marchita
ACUNA (MANUEL) (1849-1873)
Nocturno: A Rosario
PEZA (JUAN DE DIOS) (1852-1910)
Reir llorando
Fusiles y munecas

NICARAGUA

DARIO (RUBEN) (1864-)
A Roosevelt
page ix
VENEZUELA

BELLO (ANDRES) (1781-1865)
A la victoria de Bailen
La agricultura de la zona torrida
PEREZ BONALDE (JUAN ANTONIO) (1846-1892)
Vuelta a la patria
MARTIN DE LA GUARDIA (HERACLIO) (1830-)
Ultima ilusion

CANCIONES

La carcelera
Riverana
La cachucha
La valenciana
Cancion devota
La jota gallega
El tragala
Himno de Riego
Himno nacional de Mexico
Himno nacional de Cuba

NOTES

VOCABULARY[a]

[Transcriber's note a: The vocabulary section has
not been submitted for transcription.}

INTRODUCTION page xi

I

SPANISH LYRIC POETRY TO 1800

It has been observed that epic poetry, which is collective
and objective in its nature, always reaches its full
development in a nation sooner than lyric poetry, which is
individual and subjective. Such is certainly the case in
Spain. Numerous popular epics of much merit existed there
in the Middle Ages.[1] Of a popular lyric there are few
traces in the same period; and the Castilian lyric as an
art-form reached its height in the sixteenth, and again in
the nineteenth, centuries. It is necessary always to bear
in mind the distinction between the mysterious product
called popular poetry, which is continually being created
but seldom finds its way into the annals of literature,
and artistic poetry. The chronicler of the Spanish lyric
is concerned with the latter almost exclusively, though he
will have occasion to mention the former not infrequently
as the basis of some of the best artificial creations.

[Footnote 1: The popular epics were written in assonating
lines of variable length. There were also numerous monkish
narrative poems _(mester de clerecia)_ in stanzas of four
Alexandrine lines each, all riming _(cuaderna via)_.]

If one were to enumerate _ab origine_ the lyric
productions of the Iberian Peninsula he might begin
with the vague references of Strabo to the songs of its
primitive inhabitants, and then pass on to Latin page xii
poets of Spanish birth, such as Seneca, Lucan and Martial.
The later Spaniards who wrote Christian poetry in Latin,
as Juvencus and Prudentius, might then be considered. But
in order not to embrace many diverse subjects foreign
to the contents of this collection, we must confine our
inquiry to lyric production in the language of Castile,
which became the dominating tongue of the Kingdom of
Spain.

Such a restriction excludes, of course, the Arabic lyric,
a highly artificial poetry produced abundantly by the
Moors during their occupation of the south of Spain; it
excludes also the philosophical and religious poetry of
the Spanish Jews, by no means despicable in thought or
form. Catalan poetry, once written in the Provencal manner
and of late happily revived, also lies outside our field.

Even the Galician poetry, which flourished so freely under
the external stimulus of the Provencal troubadours, can be
included only with regard to its influence upon Castilian.
The Galician dialect, spoken in the northwest corner of
the Peninsula, developed earlier than the Castilian of the
central region, and it was adopted by poets in other parts
for lyric verse. Alfonso X of Castile (reigned 1252-1284)
could write prose in Castilian, but he must needs employ
Galician for his _Cantigas de Santa Maria_. The Portuguese
nobles, with King Diniz (reigned 1279-1325) at their head,
filled the idle hours of their bloody and passionate lives
by composing strangely abstract, conventional poems of
love and religion in the manner of the Provencal _canso,
dansa, balada_ and _pastorela_, which had had such a
luxuriant growth in Southern France in the eleventh and
twelfth centuries. A highly elaborated metrical system
mainly distinguishes these writers, but some of page xiii
their work catches a pleasing lilt which is supposed
to represent the imitation of songs of the people. The
popular element in the Galician productions is slight, but
it was to bear important fruit later, for its spirit is
that of the _serranas_ of Ruiz and Santillana, and of
_villancicos_ and eclogues in the sixteenth century.

It was probably in the neighborhood of 1350 that lyrics
began to be written in Castilian by the cultured classes
of Leon and Castile, who had previously thought Galician
the only proper tongue for that use, but the influence of
the Galician school persisted long after. The first real
lyric in Castilian is its offspring. This is the anonymous
_Razon feyta d'amor_ or _Aventura amorosa_ (probably
thirteenth century), a dainty story of the meeting of two
lovers. It is apparently an isolated example, ahead of its
time, unless, as is the case with the Castilian epic, more
poems are lost than extant. The often quoted _Cantica de
la Virgen_ of Gonzalo de Berceo (first half of thirteenth
century), with its popular refrain _Eya velar_, is an
oasis in the long religious epics of the amiable monk of
S. Millan de la Cogolla. One must pass into the succeeding
century to find the next examples of the true lyric. Juan
RUIZ, the mischievous Archpriest of Hita (flourished _ca_.
1350), possessed a genius sufficiently keen and human to
infuse a personal vigor into stale forms. In his _Libro de
buen amor_ he incorporated lyrics both sacred and profane,
_Loores de Santa Maria_ and _Canticas de serrana_, plainly
in the Galician manner and of complex metrical structure.
The _serranas_ are particularly free and unconventional.
The Chancellor Pero LOPEZ DE AYALA (1332-1407), wise
statesman, brilliant historian and trenchant page xiv
satirist, wrote religious songs in the same style and
still more intricate in versification. They are included
in the didactic poem usually called _El rimado de
palacio_.

Poetry flourished in and about the courts of the monarchs
of the Trastamara family; and what may be supposed a
representative collection of the work done in the reigns
of Henry II (1369-1379), John I (1379-1388), Henry III
(1388-1406) and the minority of John II (1406-1454), is
preserved for us in the _Cancionero_ which Juan Alfonso de
Baena compiled and presented to the last-named king. Two
schools of versifiers are to be distinguished in it. The
older men, such as Villasandino, Sanchez de Talavera,
Macias, Jerena, Juan Rodriguez del Padron and Baena
himself, continued the artificial Galician tradition, now
run to seed. In others appears the imitation of Italian
models which was to supplant the ancient fashion.
Francisco Imperial, a worshiper of Dante, and other
Andalusians such as Ruy Paez de Ribera, Pero Gonzalez de
Uceda and Ferran Manuel de Lando, strove to introduce
Italian meters and ideas. They first employed the Italian
hendecasyllable, although it did not become acclimated
till the days of Boscan. They likewise cultivated the
_metro de arte mayor_, which later became so prominent
(see below, p. lxxv ff.). But the interest of the poets of
the _Cancionero de Baena_ is mainly historical. In
spite of many an illuminating side-light on manners,
of political invective and an occasional glint of
imagination, the amorous platitudes and wire-drawn
love-contests of the Galician school, the stiff allegories
of the Italianates leave us cold. It was a transition
period and the most talented were unable to master the
undeveloped poetic language. page xv

The same may be said, in general, of the whole fifteenth
century. Although the language became greatly clarified
toward 1500 it was not yet ready for masterly original
work in verse. Invaded by a flood of Latinisms, springing
from a novel and undigested humanism, encumbered still
with archaic words and set phrases left over from the
Galicians, it required purification at the hands of the
real poets and scholars of the sixteenth century. The
poetry of the fifteenth is inferior to the best prose of
the same epoch; it is not old enough to be quaint and not
modern enough to meet a present-day reader upon equal
terms.

These remarks apply only to artistic poetry. Popular
poetry,--that which was exemplified in the Middle Ages by
the great epics of the Cid, the Infantes de Lara and
other heroes, and in songs whose existence can rather be
inferred than proved,--was never better. It produced the
lyrico-epic _romances_ (see _Notes_, p. 253), which,
as far as one may judge from their diction and from
contemporary testimony, received their final form at
about this time, though in many cases of older origin. It
produced charming little songs which some of the later
court poets admired sufficiently to gloss. But the
cultured writers, just admitted to the splendid cultivated
garden of Latin literature, despised these simple wayside
flowers and did not care to preserve them for posterity.

The artistic poetry of the fifteenth century falls
naturally into three classes, corresponding to three
currents of influence; and all three frequently appear in
the work of one man, not blended, but distinct. One is
the conventional love-poem of the Galician school, seldom
containing a fresh or personal note. Another is the
stilted allegory with erotic or historical page xvi
content, for whose many sins Dante was chiefly
responsible, though Petrarch, he of the _Triunfi_, and
Boccaccio cannot escape some blame. Third is a vein of
highly moral reflections upon the vanity of life and
certainty of death, sometimes running to political satire.
Its roots may be found in the Book of Job, in Seneca and,
nearer at hand, in the _Proverbios morales_ of the Jew Sem
Tob (_ca_. 1350), in the _Rimado de Palacio_ of Ayala, and
in a few poets of the _Cancionero de Baena_.

John II was a dilettante who left the government of the
kingdom to his favorite, Alvaro de Luna. He gained more
fame in the world of letters than many better kings by
fostering the study of literature and gathering about him
a circle of "court poets" nearly all of noble birth. Only
two names among them all imperatively require mention.
Inigo LOPEZ DE MENDOZA, MARQUIS OF SANTILLANA (1398-1458)
was the finest type of _grand seigneur_, protector of
letters, student, warrior, poet and politician. He wrote
verse in all three of the manners just named, but he will
certainly be longest remembered for his _serranillas_, the
fine flower of the Provencal-Galician tradition, in which
the poet describes his meeting with a country lass.
Santillana combined the freshest local setting with
perfection of form and left nothing more to be desired in
that genre. He also wrote the first sonnets in Castilian,
but they are interesting only as an experiment, and had no
followers. Juan de MENA (1411-1456) was purely a literary
man, without other distinction of birth or accomplishment.
His work is mainly after the Italian model. The _Laberinto
de fortuna_, by which he is best known, is a dull allegory
with much of Dante's apparatus. There are historical
passages where the poet's patriotism leads him page xvii
to a certain rhetorical height, but his good intentions
are weighed down by three millstones: slavish imitation,
the monotonous _arte mayor_ stanza and the deadly
earnestness of his temperament. He enjoyed great renown
and authority for many decades.

Two anonymous poems of about the same time deserve
mention. The _Danza de la muerte_, the Castilian
representative of a type which appeared all over Europe,
shows death summoning mortals from all stations of
life with ghastly glee. The _Coplas de Mingo Revulgo_,
promulgated during the reign of Henry IV (1454-1474), are
a political satire in dialogue form, and exhibit for the
first time the peculiar peasant dialect that later became
a convention of the pastoral eclogues and also of the
country scenes in the great drama.

The second half of the century continues the same
tendencies with a notable development in the fluidity of
the language and an increasing interest in popular poetry.
Gomez Manrique (d. 1491?) was another warrior of a
literary turn whose best verses are of a severely moral
nature. His nephew JORGE MANRIQUE (1440-1478) wrote a
single poem of the highest merit; his scanty other works
are forgotten. The _Coplas por la muerte de su padre_,
beautifully translated by Longfellow, contain some
laments for the writer's personal loss, but more general
reflections upon the instability of worldly glory. It is
not to be thought that this famous poem is in any way
original in idea; the theme had already been exploited to
satiety, but Manrique gave it a superlative perfection of
form and a contemporary application which left no room for
improvement.

There were numerous more or less successful love-poets
of the conventional type writing in page xviii
octosyllabics and the inevitable imitators of Dante
with their unreadable allegories in _arte mayor_. The
repository for the short poems of these writers is the
_Cancionero general_ of Hernando de Castillo (1511). It
was reprinted many times throughout the sixteenth
century. Among the writers represented in it one should
distinguish, however, Rodrigo de Cota. His dramatic
_Dialogo entre el amor y un viejo_ has real charm, and
has saved his name from the oblivion to which most of his
fellows have justly been consigned. The bishop Ambrosio
Montesino (_Cancionero_, 1508) was a fervent religious
poet and the precursor of the mystics of fifty years
later.

The political condition of Spain improved immensely in
the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella (1479-1516) and the
country entered upon a period of internal homogeneity and
tranquility which might be expected to foster artistic
production. Such was the case; but literature was not the
first of the arts to reach a highly refined state. The
first half of the sixteenth century is a period of
humanistic study, and the poetical works coming from it
were still tentative. JUAN DEL ENCINA (1469-1533?) is
important in the history of the drama, for his _eglogas,
representaciones_ and _autos_ are practically the first
Spanish dramas not anonymous. As a lyric poet Encina
excels in the light pastoral; he was a musician as well
as a poet, and his bucolic _villancicos_ and _glosas_
in stanzas of six-and eight-syllable lines are daintily
written and express genuine love of nature. The Portuguese
GIL VICENTE (1470-1540?) was a follower of Encina at
first, but a much bigger man. Like most of his compatriots
of the sixteenth century he wrote in both Portuguese and
Castilian, though better in the former tongue. He was
close to the people in his thinking and writing page xix
and some of the songs contained in his plays reproduce the
truest popular savor.

The intimate connection between Spain and Italy during the
period when the armies of the Emperor Charles V (Charles I
of Spain: reigned 1516-1555) were overrunning the latter
country gave a new stimulus to the imitation of Italian
meters and poets which we have seen existed in a premature
state since the reign of John II. The man who first
achieved real success in the hendecasyllable, combined in
sonnets, octaves, _terza rima_ and blank verse, was Juan
BOSCAN ALMOGAVER (1490?-1542), a Catalan of wealth and
culture. Boscan was handicapped by writing in a tongue
not native to him and by the constant holding of foreign
models before his eyes, and he was not a man of genius;
yet his verse kept to a loftier ideal than had appeared
for a long time and his effort to lift Castilian poetry
from the slough of convention into which it had fallen was
successful. During the rest of the century the impulse
given by Boscan divided Spanish lyrists into two opposing
hosts, the Italianates and those who clung to the native
meters (stanzas of short, chiefly octosyllabic, lines, for
the _arte mayor_ had sunk by its own weight).

The first and greatest of Boscan's disciples was his close
friend GARCILASO DE LA VEGA (1503-1536) who far surpassed
his master. He was a scion of a most noble family, a
favorite of the emperor, and his adventurous career,
passed mostly in Italy, ended in a soldier's death. His
poems, however (_eglogas, canciones_, sonnets, etc.),
take us from real life into the sentimental world of the
Arcadian pastoral. Shepherds discourse of their unrequited
loves and mourn amid surroundings of an idealized Nature.
page xx
The pure diction, the Vergilian flavor, the classic finish
of these poems made them favorites in Spain from the
first, and their author has always been regarded as a
master.

With Garcilaso begins the golden age of Spanish poetry and
of Spanish literature in general, which may be said to
close in 1681 with the death of Calderon. It was a period
of external greatness, of conquest both in Europe and
beyond the Atlantic, but it contained the germs of future
decay. The strength of the nation was exhausted in
futile warfare, and virile thought was stifled by the
Inquisition, supported by the monarchs. Hence the
luxuriant literature of the time runs in the channels
farthest from underlying social problems; philosophy and
political satire are absent, and the romantic drama, novel
and lyric flourish. But in all external qualities the
poetry written during this period has never been equaled
in Spain. Its polish, color and choiceness of language
have been the admiration and model of later Castilian
poets.

The superficial nature of this literature is exhibited
in the controversy excited by the efforts of Boscan and
Garcilaso to substitute Italian forms for the older
Spanish ones. The discussion dealt with externals; with
meters, not ideas. Both schools delighted in the airy
nothings of the conventional love lyric, and it matters
little at this distance whether they were cast in lines of
eleven or eight syllables.

The contest was warm at the time, however. Sa de Miranda
(1495-1558), the chief exponent of the Italian school in
Portugal, wrote effectively also in Castilian. Gutierre de
Cetina (1518?-1572?) and Fernando de Acuna (1500?-1580?)
are two others who supported the new measures. One whose
example had more influence is Diego Hurtado de page xxi
Mendoza (1503-1575), a famous diplomat, humanist and
historian. He entertained his idle moments with verse,
writing cleverly in the old style but turning also toward
the new. His sanction for the latter seems to have proved
decisive.

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