Modern Spanish Lyrics | Page 9

of his people?by his prose _Vidas de espa?oles célebres_ (begun in?1806): the Cid, the Great Captain (Gonzalo de Córdoba),?Pizarro and others of their kind. In part a follower?of the French philosophers of the eighteenth century,?Quintana sang also of humanity and progress, as in his ode?on the invention of printing. In politics Quintana was a?liberal; in religious beliefs, a materialist. Campoamor?has said of Quintana that he sang not of faith or?pleasures, but of duties. His enemies have accused him?of stirring the colonies to revolt by his bitter sarcasm?directed at past and contemporaneous Spanish rulers, but?this is doubtless an exaggeration. It may be said that?except in his best patriotic poems his verses lack lyric?merit and his ideas are wanting in insight and depth; but?his sincerity of purpose was in the main beyond question?and he occasionally gave expression to striking boldness?of thought and exaltation of feeling. In technique?Quintana was a follower of the Salamancan school.
The cleric Juan Nicasio GALLEGO (1777-1853) rivaled?Quintana as a writer of patriotic verses. A liberal in?politics like Quintana, Gallego also took the page xxxiii side of his people against the French invaders and against?the servile Spanish rulers. He is best known by the ode?El dos de mayo, in which he exults over the rising of?the Spanish against the French on the second of May,?1808; the ode _á la defensa de Buenos Aires_ against the?English; and the elegy _á la muerte de la duquesa de?Frías_ in which he shows that he is capable of deep?feeling. Gallego was a close friend of Quintana, whose?salon in Madrid he frequented. Gallego wrote little, but?his works are more correct in language and style than?those of Quintana. It is interesting that although the?writings of these two poets evince a profound dislike and?distrust of the French, yet both were in their art largely?dominated by the influence of French neo-classicism. This?is but another illustration of the relative conservatism?of belles-lettres.
In the year 1793 there had been formed in Seville by a?group of young writers an Academia de Letras Humanas to?foster the cultivation of letters. The members of this?academy were admirers of Herrera, the Spanish Petrarchist?and patriotic poet of the sixteenth century, and they?strove for a continuation of the tradition of the earlier?Sevillan group. The more important writers of the later?Sevillan school were Arjona, Blanco, Lista and Reinoso.?Manuel María de ARJONA (1771-1820), a priest well read in?the Greek and Latin classics, was an imitator of Horace.?José María BLANCO (1775-1841), known in the history of?English literature as Blanco White, spent much time in?England and wrote in English as well as in Castilian.?Ordained a Catholic priest he later became an Unitarian.?The best-known and most influential writer of the group?was Alberto LISTA (1775-1848), an educator and page xxxiv later canon of Seville. Lista was a skilful artist and?like Arjona an admirer and imitator of Horace; but his?ideas lacked depth. His best-known poem is probably a?religious one, _á la muerte de Jesús,_ which abounds in?true poetic feeling. Lista exerted great influence as a?teacher and his _Lecciones de literatura espa?ola_ did?much to stimulate the study of Spanish letters. Félix José?REINOSO (1772-1814), also a priest, imitated Milton in?octava rima. As a whole the influence of the Sevillan?school was healthful. By insisting upon purity of diction?and regularity in versification, the members of the school?helped somewhat to restrain the license and improve the?bad taste prevailing in the Spanish literature of the?time. The Catalonian Manuel de CABANYES (1808-1833)?remained unaffected by the warring literary schools and?followed with passionate enthusiasm the precepts of the?ancients and particularly of Horace.
In the third decade of the nineteenth century romanticism,?with its revolt against the restrictions of classicism,?with its free play of imagination and emotion, and with?lyricism as its predominant note, flowed freely into Spain?from England and France. Spain had remained pre?minently?the home of romanticism when France and England had?turned to classicism, and only in the second half of the?eighteenth century had Spanish writers given to classicism?a reception that was at the best lukewarm. Now romanticism?was welcomed back with open arms, and Spanish writers?turned eagerly for inspiration not only to Chateaubriand,?Victor Hugo and Byron, but also to Lope de Vega and?Calderón. Spain has always worshiped the past, for Spain?was once great, and the appeal of romanticism was page xxxv therefore the greater as it drew its material largely?from national sources.
In 1830 a club known as the Parnasillo was formed in?Madrid to spread the new literary theories, much as the?Cénacle had done in Paris. The members of the Parnasillo?met in a wretched little café to avoid public attention.?Here were to be found Bretón de los Herreros, Estébanez?Calderón, Mesonero Romanos, Gil y Zárate, Ventura de la?Vega, Espronceda and Larra. The influence of Spanish epic?and dramatic poetry had been important in stimulating the?growth of romanticism in England, Germany and France. In?England, Robert Southey translated into English the?poem and the chronicle of the Cid and Sir Walter Scott?published his