OTRA HISPANIA Hemos recibido los dos primeros números de una nueva revista, publicada en Madrid, cuyo nombre es como el de la nuestra, Hispania, revista dirigida por dos españoles conocidos por todo el mundo, los españolísimos señores Don Adolfo Bonilla y San Martín, famoso humanista, literato, filólogo y ahora decano de la Universidad Central, y Don Ricardo León, uno de los novelistas más bien conocidos del mundo. Con sólo nombrar a estos dos señores bastaría para ensalzar el mérito de esta nueva revista por ellos dirigida, porque cosa es bien sabida que representan ellos en la España de hoy un acrisolado españolismo que vive y sueña siempre con una España grande que está por encima de todas las condiciones del momento y se remonta a los orígenes y base verdaderas de la espiritualidad de una raza que ha tomado una parte muy importante en la historia de la cultura humana. Y al examinar estos dos primeros números vemos que no estamos engañados. No es ésta una revista como todas las revistas. Es una revista parecida a Raza Española tan dignamente dirigida por Doña Blanca de los Ríos Lampérez, a quien el Rey de España ha honrado recientemente con la Gran Cruz de Alfonso XII, concedida durante una fiesta de homenaje presidida por la reina, Doña Victoria. Pero la nueva revista Hispania es de un carácter más popular, más amplio, si se quiere, que Raza Española. Las dos unidas pueden llegar a ser una fuerza poderosísima para mantener en pleno vigor el espíritu español por todo el mundo. La nueva Hispania es otro paladín que como los conquistadores de antaño seguirá conquistando nuevos territorios espirituales para la patria hispánica, el conjunto de pueblos y razas donde se habla español. A. M. E. ANOTHER LIFE MEMBER The Secretary-Treasurer takes pleasure in announcing another Life Member of the Association, Professor Carlos Castillo of the University of Chicago. SPANISH, ITS VALUE AND PLACE IN AMERICAN EDUCATION How many of these booklets have you used? The Secretary continues to receive letters praising two points about them. When there is an influential person in the community who is cold to Spanish, the booklet is useful to hand him for his perusal. When you wish for a little supplementary reading to give students, this booklet contains the gist of a small library of books about Spain and Spanish America. Class exercises can be based on the book. Copies may be had for 40 cents each or four for $1.00. Address Alfred Coester, Stanford University, California. Teatro Antiguo Español, vols. IV and V. Vol. IV, Lope de Vega, El Cuerdo loco, publicada por José F. Montesinos. Madrid, 1922, Pp. 234. Vol. V, Lope de Vega, La Corona merecida, publicada por José F. Montesinos. Madrid, 1923, Pp. 215. Here are two more volumes in this beautifully printed series so competently edited under the direction of the Centro de Estudios Históricos. The present comedias are printed from autograph manuscripts of Lope de Vega. The original text is copied with all possible care, and the variants of the early editions are given. In literary merit the two plays differ widely. El Cuerdo loco is one of Lope's catchpenny improvisations, a preposterous intrigue play dashed off to divert the mob. It in no way deserves the sterling erudition which has been lavished upon it, and one wonders why it was selected to appear so soon in the series (intended, I believe, to include eventually all of Lope's autograph plays). The only feature of it which merits serious discussion is the "feigned madness" motif. A prince is plotted against by his stepmother and her lover. In order to save his own life he pretends to lose his mind. A vague analogy with Hamlet may be detected, but the resemblance is superficial, and it would be futile to press the comparison. This fact the editor recognizes. La Corona merecida is far from being a masterpiece, but it contains some powerful passages and some strong direct writing. It treats of an historical story, or better, legend- the passion of King Pedro el Cruel for doña María Coronel, wife of a noble vassal, his unremitting pursuit of her, and her final defense by so burning herself that her appearance makes Don Pedro turn aside in horror and disgust. Her heroic chastity is rewarded: Pedro's queen places on the devoted head her own crown, and hence the title. But Lope has, by some caprice, transferred to another time, place and person the well-known tradition. In his drama the king is Alfonso VIII, the lady is one Doña Sol, not known to history. Neither the present editor nor Menéndez y Pelayo before him' have made any attempt to formulate an explanation of the shift. That the dramatist needed the name Sol to pun on, as Menéndez y Pelayo suggests, seems unlikely even as a motive for the change in heroine, and it offers no solution for the substitution of Alfonso, whom Lope elsewhere paints as a worthy monarch, for Pedro. Why did the poet here heap on the head of a ruler whom he thought almost worthy of canonization an odium which belongs very properly to the demon of Seville? The first two acts of La Corona merecida conduct the story with a straightforward, rising rhythm. The character of the king's favorite, who points out to him the evil of his course, and yet aids him in it, is natural, plausible, and drawn with more close observation of actual humanity than Lope often displayed. Not till the third act do the typical defects of the siglo de oro drama become annoying. Hurried and ill-motivated, the closing scenes display the superficiality consequent upon an external treatment of an essentially psychological theme. The acts of the heroine follow jerkily one upon another, as a puppet obeying the lines 1 In the introduction to Vol. VIII of the Academy edition of Lope's plays. of a plot laid out in advance. One never knows why the king releases the falsely imprisoned husband. The queen changes her whole attitude in a moment, with scarcely an expression of surprise. With such fundamental weaknesses in mind, Sr. Montesinos repeatedly admits Lope's inability to plow deeply into the character of his personages: "nos falta una visión interior" (El Cuerdo loco, p. 179); “rara vez profundiza el poeta en su psicología" (ibid., p. 175). But he is hardly justified in asserting in defense of his author that "no hemos de reprocharle el no haber hecho un teatro psicológico en el sentido moderno, que en su tiempo ni él ni nadie hubieran podido hacer." (La Corona merecida, p. 161.) Shakespeare, Corneille, Racine, were writing psychological drama of the most profound sort in the same century. It was not the period but the race and the tradition which caused the divergence. The critical apparatus of both plays is full, conscientious and often very valuable. The situations and themes are used as a text for comparative studies which one would not care to miss. Thus El Cuerdo loco contains an investigation of Lope's treatment of treachery (pp. 175–185), and some light upon his casual autobiographical allusions (pp. 186-191), as well as suggestive remarks about the possible influence on Lope's work of his admiration for the Jesuits (p. 179) and his conception of the democracy of the sense of honor (p. 185). La Corona merecida is illumined by a penetrating inquiry into the poet's attitude toward the pundonor (pp. 155-175)-a contribution to this important subject which must be set beside those of Don Américo Castro and Professor G. T. Northup. What are the duties of a vassal when the king attempts the honor of a member of his family? How does the obligation of a woman's brother differ from that of her husband? Is a woman rather honored or dishonored by the attentions of a king? In answering these questions the editor makes use of copious quotations from other dramas of Lope de Vega, which bespeak the fullness of wide reading and stamp him as one of the best-informed Lope specialists living. 3 The least accurate portion of the editorial matter is that devoted to the versification. Much would need to be added in order to make it a complete study of the metrics of these plays. What is actually done is not free from mistakes, some of which are due to ignorance of the usual rules of Spanish versification. The following instances may be cited: In El Cuerdo loco, p. 193, it is hard to understand what is meant by "combinaciones libres de endecasílabos y octosílabos." P. 195, honra and honor should, of course, not be included in a list of words with aspirated h, since the Latin etymon began with h, not f. - In La Corona merecida, p. 182, the passage of romance in Act II, lines 1269-1420, has an estribillo of 5+ 11, not 7 + 11, as stated. The phenomenon is extraordinarily rare, by the way. - The passage 11. 1491-2026 is not all in redondillas, but contains a four-line cantar (1503–1506). P. 184, hiatus is regular, though not inevitable, before the last accented syllable in a line, as the editor states; but the first accented syllable in a line ("la primera sílaba acentuada"), which he 2 Algunas observaciones sobre el concepto del honor, in Revista de filologia española, III, 1-50, 357-386. 3 Cervantes' Attitude toward Honor, in Modern Philology, XXI, 397-421. rates as of like importance, has nothing whatever to do with hiatus. Most of the examples which he cites in this category are caused by an aspirate h; the rest are rare and capricious examples. It is not even correct to say that the hiatus occurs before the first accented syllable in such lines as 547: Anda, hijo. - Alarga el brazo. 2398, tuya es, la firma es tuya. 2569, Lícito es que viua vn rey que muere. The last case is one of internal rhythmic accent, as is also line 2634. - P. 185, the explanations of the two lines cited here are entirely beside the mark. L. 345 is another case of aspirate h, while 1. 1199 merely illustrates the regular rule that the conjunction o (or u) standing between two vowels prevents one synalepha. Some cases of wrong accentuation may be noted also. In El Cuerdo loco: 1. 801, mas qué should read mas que. L. 1078, a mí should read a mi. Ll. 1194, 1382, aún should read aun. (I have yet to see an authentic example of aún, dissylabic, in Lope.) - In La Corona merecida: 1. 533, Láynez should read Laynez. L. 1637, si should read si. In the Adiciones to El Cuerdo loco (p. 233) there are certain statements which the editor would surely not have made if he had at the time seen FoulchéDelbosc's edition of La Estrella de Sevilla. For he says, speaking of the mad scenes in this play, that Clarindo, one of the characters, "como todo el mundo sabe, no es criatura lopesca"; and that these scenes are not used for comparison here on account of "la certeza de ser pasaje refundido." These opinions are simply an echo of Menéndez y Pelayo, and they have been, if not definitely refuted, at least shown to be without solid basis (Revue hispanique, XLVIII, 1920, 522-525). The slight defects which I have noted are trifles when compared with the accuracy and learning of the whole. Let me now pass to other more general considerations. As one reads these two plays, of no great intrinsic merit, to say the least, the query presents itself once more: What is the precise object of this series of editions, and what end is served by it? In the preface to the first volume, the statement was made that the series was intended for the profit of a restricted circle of scholars, and that exact reproduction of the text, as a basis for linguistic and philological studies, would be the chief aim of the editors. At least, that is my understanding of phrases which are in themselves not quite so precise.* The series contains, to date, two autograph plays of Vélez de Guevara, one comedia and one auto sacramental of Rojas Zorrilla (not autographs), and two autograph comedias of Lope de Vega. Without denying the high value of certain notes (some of which might almost as well be published as separate articles), one may affirm that it is as faithful reproductions of a famous author's own manuscripts 4 "Dadas estas condiciones, lo oportuno será no aspirar ilusoriamente a difundir las obras inéditas de nuestra escena entre el público más general, a quien estorba cualquier ortografía extraña, sino publicarlas con destino al círculo más reducido, que está preparado para recibirlas y que es en definitiva el que las ha de buscar y leer. Según esto, las comedias que editemos saldrán con un texto fijado con el rigor que permitan las fuentes de que se disponga." Teatro antiguo español, I, vi-vii. that these reprints have their chief reason for existence. El Cuerdo loco and La Corona merecida have both been reprinted in recent years, though carelessly. No outstanding excellence on their part demanded another edition, and the labor expended on the excellent critical matter might far better have been vouchsafed to El Caballero de Olmedo or Fuente-Ovejuna or El Infanzón de Illescas. Since, then, the text, as a corpus for linguistic study, is the true motivating end, why would it not be better to devote equal money and care to a photographic reproduction of the autograph? A mechanical copy is the only one which can furnish the philologist with absolutely reliable material for study. A text set in type can never be perfect, since proofreaders and typesetters are but human. A demonstration of this axiom may be had within the covers of El Cuerdo loco. Although the labor of copying has been performed with scrupulous care, and it is doubtful if anyone could do it better, yet the texts are not perfect. Without having access to the original for collation, one can query the following readings, raising doubts which could be settled only by seeing the handwriting. L. 194, read pensamientos for pensamientas. L. 1208 is short one syllable; while there are cases of faulty scansion even in an autograph, this line might well read de dónde for dónde. L. 2501 offers a similar case, unless one admits the rough hiatus in quiseme yr. L. 1991, both sense and scansion demand el for del. If such queries arise without collation, is it not safe to assume that with it one would find numerous discrepancies between script and print? Experience with other supposedly exact copies leads one to answer in the affirmative. It appears, then, that one might formulate a rule for editors in some such way as this: Autograph manuscripts of slight literary merit ought to be reproduced, if at all, by photographic processes. If they are already accessible in a printed text, only the mechanical copy is needed; if unedited, a printed interpretation of the script should accompany it. Considerations of cost seem to be the only valid argument against such procedure. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Las Cien Mejores Poesías Cubanas, por José María Chacón y Calvo, Madrid, 1922. No es ésta una antología más como pudiera inferirse juzgando por el título. Al reunir la presente selección el colector ha roto con la costumbre tradicional en casos análogos y a cada poeta ha dedicado un sintético estudio biográfico y crítico que avalora y enriquece el mérito del volumen. De cuantos críticos se interesan hoy por la poesía cubana es el señor Chacón el que más profundamente la conoce y el que con criterio más ecuánime y elevado ha sabido valorar estéticamente la producción intelectual de la Gran Antilla. Es la suya crítica serena, imparcialmente ponderadora, que no se deja influir por los juicios preestablecidos ni por la tradición, que muchas veces consagra falsos valores. Su crítica es de revisión, de acrisolamiento y depuración estética. La exquisita sensi The Centro has therefore not adhered to its original intention of publishing only "comedias inéditas" (Vol. I, p. 125). |