Los Amantes de Teruel | Page 3

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.
#III. The Legend in Spanish Literature.# Very few of the famous
legends of the world rest upon documentary evidence, and the fact that
the legend of the Lovers of Teruel lacks historic proof has had little
influence upon its popularity. It has been productive of much literature,
the extent of which is indicated by the two hundred or more titles
contained in the bibliography[l] published by Domingo Gascón y
Guimbao in 1907. Of the many poems, plays, and novels inspired by
the legend only the most noteworthy can be mentioned here. The oldest
literary treatment is apparently that of Pedro de Alventosa, written
about the middle of the sixteenth century, Historia lastimosa y sentida
de los tiernos amantes Marcilla y Segura. This was followed in 1566
by a Latin poem of about five hundred lines by Antonio de Serón,

published in 1907 by Gascón y Guimbao, with a Spanish translation
and an excellent bibliography. In 1581 the legend was given dramatic
treatment by Rey de Artieda, who followed the story in its essential
elements but modernized the action by placing it in the time of Charles
V, only forty-six years earlier than the publication of the play. It has
little literary value, but is important because of its influence on later
dramatists. Passing over various treatments of the theme that serve
merely to indicate its growing popularity, we come to the pretentious
epic poem of Juan Yagüe de Salas in twenty-six cantos, Los Amantes
de Teruel, Epopeya trágica, in which, besides adding many fantastic
details to the legend, the author presented much extraneous matter
bearing upon the general history of Teruel. Because of this widely
known poem and the growing popularity of the Lovers, two dramatists
of the Golden Age, Tirso de Molina and Pérez de Montalbán, gave it
their attention. Los Amantes de Teruel of the great Tirso de Molina,
published in 1635, is disappointing, considering the dramatic ability of
the author; it contains passages of dramatic effectiveness but is weak in
construction. As in Rey de Artieda's play, the action is placed in the
sixteenth century; Marsilla takes part in the famous expedition of
Charles V against the Moors in Tunis, saves the Emperor's life, and,
richly rewarded, returns, too late, to claim the promised bride. It is a
better play than that of Artieda, but is itself surpassed by Montalbán's
play of three years later. Although he was far from possessing the
dramatic genius of Tirso, Montalbán succeeded in giving the story the
form that it was to maintain on the stage for two centuries. Frequent
performances and many editions of his play, as well as many other
literary treatments and references that might be cited, attest the
continued popularity of the legend.
[Footnote 1: Los Amantes de Teruel, Bibliografía de los Amantes.
Domingo Gascón y Guimbao, Madrid, 1907.]
Finally, in the early days of Romanticism, it assumed the dramatic form
that has remained most popular down to the present day. On the
nineteenth of January of the year 1837 the theatergoing people of
Madrid were moved to vociferous applause