Modern Spanish Lyrics | Page 4

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 Proven?al-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.?Gómez 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?_Diálogo 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 _églogas,?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?BOSCáN ALMOGAVER (1490?-1542), a Catalan of wealth and?culture. Boscán 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 Boscán divided Spanish