Los Amantes de Teruel

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Amantes de Teruel, by Hartzenbusch, Juan Eugenio

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Title: Los Amantes de Teruel Drama en cuatro actos en verso y prosa
Author: Hartzenbusch, Juan Eugenio
Release Date: February 2, 2004 [EBook #10909]
Language: Spanish
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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[Ilustración: JUAN EUGENIO HARTZENBUSCH]
Heath's Modern Language Series

LOS AMANTES DE TERUEL
POR
JUAN EUGENIO HARTZENBUSCH

WITH INTRODUCTION, NOTES, AND VOCABULARY
BY
G.W. UMPHREY, PH.D.
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF ROMANCE LANGUAGES UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON
1920.

PREFACE
The importance of Hartzenbusch in the history of the Spanish drama and the enduring popularity in Spain of Los Amantes de Teruel, his masterpiece, have assured this play a definite place in the work of advanced students of Spanish literature in our universities. For such students the many editions published in Spain and elsewhere have been perhaps sufficient, but for the much larger number who never reach the advanced literary classes an annotated edition is needed. That this play offers excellent material for the work of more elementary courses in the schools and colleges has long been the opinion of the present editor; and that it has not already found a place among the Spanish texts published in this country is difficult to understand. The old legend of Teruel, the embodiment of pure and constant love, is one that might well be expected to make a strong appeal to the youth of any country; the simple and direct presentation given to the legend by Hartzenbusch and the comparative freedom from textual difficulties, as the result of the careful revisions of the play by its scholarly author, bring it within the range of the understanding and appreciation of students who have studied Spanish one year in college or two years in high school, if it is put before them in a properly prepared edition.
The editor has kept in mind this class of students in the preparation of the Introduction, Notes, and Vocabulary. To those who consider the Introduction disproportionately long, the excuse is given that this will be the first Romantic play read by many students, and that if they are to understand it and appreciate its fine literary qualities, they must be enabled to view it in its proper historical perspective. It is to be hoped that this edition may serve as a safe approach to the systematic study, of the Romantic Movement in Spanish literature.
The text of the play is that of the annotated edition of Dr. Adolf Kressner, Leipsic, 1887 (Bibliothek Spanischer Schriftsteller), and is the same as the one contained in the definitive collection of the plays of Hartzenbusch, Teatro, Madrid, 1888-1892, Vol. I, pages 7-130 (Colección de Escritores Castellanos).
The indebtedness of the editor to Professor E.C. Hills of Indiana University for many helpful suggestions is gratefully acknowledged.
G.W. UMPHREY
UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON, SEATTLE.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREFACE
INTRODUCTION
I. The Legend
II. Authenticity of the Legend
III. The Legend in Spanish Literature
IV. Life of Hartzenbusch
V. Hartzenbusch's Treatment of the Legend
VI. Romanticism
VII. Romanticism in Los Amantes
VIII. Versification
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
TEXT
NOTES
VOCABULARY

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