Modern Spanish Lyrics | Page 7

fields, but at his best his caustic wit and
fearless vigor place
him high.
There were not lacking poets who kept themselves free from
taint of
culteranismo, though they did not join in
the fight against it. The
brothers Argensola (LUPERCIO
LEONARDO DE ARGENSOLA,
1559-1613, BARTOLOMÉ LEONARDO DE
ARGENSOLA,
1562-1631), of Aragonese birth, turned to
Horace and other classics
as well as to Italy for their
inspiration. Their pure and dignified
sonnets, odes and
translations rank high. Juan MARTÍNEZ DE
JÁUREGUI page xxvi (1583-1641) wrote a few original poems, but is
known
mainly for his excellent translation of Tasso's Aminta.
He
too succumbed to Gongorism at times. The few poems of
Francisco
de RIOJA (1586?-1659) are famous for the purity
of their style and
their tender melancholy tone. A little
apart is Esteban Manuel de
VILLEGAS (1589-1669), an
admirer of the Argensolas, "en versos
cortos divino,
insufrible en los mayores," who is known for his
attempts
in Latin meters and his successful imitations of Anacreon

and Catullus.
The lyrics of CALDERÓN (1600-1681) are to be found mostly
in his
comedias_ and _autos. There are passages which
display great gifts
in the realm of pure poetry, but
too often they are marred by the
impertinent metaphors
characteristic of culteranismo.
His name closes the most brilliant era of Spanish letters.
The decline
of literature followed close upon that of the
political power of Spain.
The splendid empire of Charles
V had sunk, from causes inherent in

the policies of that
over-ambitious monarch, through the somber
bigotry of
Philip II, the ineptitude of Philip III, the frivolity of

Philip IV, to the imbecility of Charles II; and the death
of the last of
the Hapsburg rulers in 1700 left Spain in
a deplorably enfeebled
condition physically and
intellectually. The War of the Succession
(1701-1714)
exhausted her internal strength still more, and the final

acknowledgment of Philip V (reigned 1701-1746) brought
hardly
any blessing but that of peace. Under these
circumstances poetry
could not thrive; and in truth the
eighteenth century in Spain is an age
devoted more to the
discussion of the principles of literature than to
the
production of it. At first the decadent remnants of page xxvii the
siglo de oro still survived, but later the
French taste, following the
principles formulated by
Boileau, prevailed almost entirely. The
history of Spanish
poetry in the eighteenth century is a history of the

struggle between these two forces and ends in the triumph
of the
latter.
The effects of Gongorism lasted long in Spain, which, with
its innate
propensity to bombast, was more fertile soil
for it than other nations.
Innumerable poetasters of the
early eighteenth century enjoyed fame
in their day and
some possessed talent; but the obscure and trivial
style
of the age from which they could not free themselves
deprived
them of any chance of enduring fame. One may
mention, as the least
unworthy, Gabriel Álvarez de Toledo
(1662-1714) and Eugenio
Gerardo Lobo (1679-1750).
Some one has said that the poetry of Spain, with the
exception of the
romances_ and the drama of the siglo
de oro_, has always drawn its
inspiration from some other
country. Add to the exceptions the
medieval epic and the
statement would be close to the truth. First
Provence
through the medium of Galicia; then Italy and with it

ancient Rome; and lastly France and England, on more than
one
occasion, have molded Spanish poetry. The power of
the French

classical literature, soon dominant in Europe,
could not long be
stayed by the Pyrenees; and Pope,
Thomson and Young were also
much admired. Philip V, a
Frenchman, did not endeavor to crush the
native spirit in
his new home, but his influence could not but be felt.
He
established a Spanish Academy on the model of the French
in
1714.
It was some time before the reaction, based on common
sense and
confined to the intellectuals, could take deep
root, and, as was natural,
it went too far and condemned
much of the siglo de oro_ entire. The
Diario page xxviii de los literatos_, a journal of criticism founded in
1737,
and the _Poética_ of Ignacio de Luzán, published in
the same
year, struck the first powerful blows. Luzán
(1702-1754) followed in
general the precepts of Boileau,
though he was able to praise some of
the good points in
the Spanish tradition. His own poems are frigid.
The
_Sátira contra los malos escritores de su tiempo_ (1742)
of
Jorge Pitillas (pseudonym of José Gerardo de Hervás, d.
1742) was
an imitation of Boileau which had great effect.
Blas Antonio Nasarre
(1689-1751), Agustín Montiano
(1697-1765) and Luis José
Velázquez (1722-1772) were
critics who, unable to compose
meritorious plays or
verse themselves, cut to pieces the great figures
of the
preceding age.
Needless to say, the Gallicizers were vigorously opposed,
but so poor
were the original productions of the defenders
of the national manner
that their side was necessarily the
losing one. Vicente García de la
Huerta (1734-1787) was
its most vehement partisan, but he is
remembered only for
a tragedy, Raquel.
Thus it is seen that during a century of social and
industrial
depression Spain did not produce a poet worthy
of the name. The
condition of the nation was sensibly
bettered under Charles III
(reigned 1759-1788) who did
what was possible to reorganize the
state and