Chapter I: Preface

This biographical sketch is, in fact, a fragment of a book which will now never come into existence. This particular chapter has been snatched from the burning by an accident. The name of Luis de Leon deservedly ranks as high as that of any poet in the history of Spanish literature; but his reputation as a poet is mostly local, while he is known all the world over as the subject of a dubious anecdote. The attempt is now made to render him more familiar than he has hitherto been to English-speaking people, and to do this, to exhibit the man as he was, it proved necessary to analyse the two volumes of his first trial, the evidence of which is brought together in vols. X and XI of the _Coleccion de Documentos inéditos para la Historia de España_. Edited by Miguel Salvá and Pedro Sainz de Baranda, these volumes appeared in 1847; their value is incontestable, but, though they give the evidence as it occurs in the register of the Inquisition, this evidence is not arranged in consistent chronological order, nor is it supplied with an index. The work, printed seventy-three years ago, is not within easy reach of every reader; and of those who have access to it not all are patient enough to read steadily through so large a mass of somewhat incoherent matter. Should any such readers be tempted to examine the record closely, it is hoped that this sketch will do something to make their task easier. An attempt is made here to picture the man as he was, full of fortitude, yet not exempt from human weakness. I trust that I have avoided the temptation to go to the opposite extreme, and lay the blame--as has been done--for the irregularities of the trial at Luis de Leon's own door.

In dealing with his Spanish poems, I have tried not to put his claims to consideration too high. Laboulaye, in _La Liberté religieuse_, calls Luis de Leon 'le premier lyrique de l'Europe moderne'. This phrase dates from 1859, and was addressed to a generation which delighted in arranging authors in something like the order of a class list. Though I have the highest opinion of Luis de Leon's genius, I have not felt tempted to follow Laboulaye's example; I have by preference discussed, so far as space allows, such points as the probable chronology of Luis de Leon's poems. Once more I repeat that this is a chapter of a book that will now never be written.

It may be as well to add at this point a few explanatory words concerning the plan of accentuation adopted here. There seems to be no valid reason for applying, in a book primarily intended for English readers, the modern Academic system to proper names borne in the sixteenth century by men who lived more than three hundred years before the current system was ever invented. Except of course in the case of quotations, that system is applied rigidly only to the names of those who have adopted it formally (as on pp. 114 _n._ and 191 _n._). I have gone on the theory that accents should be sparingly used in a work of this kind, and that, as accents are almost needless for Spaniards they should be employed only when the needs of foreigners compel their use. It is a fundamental rule in Spanish that nearly all words ending in a consonant should be stressed on the last syllable. But since nobody, however slightly acquainted with Spanish, is tempted to pronounce such words as Velazquez (p. 79) or Gomez (p. 250) incorrectly, no graphic accent is employed in such cases. Names ending in _s_--such as Valbás--are accentuated, however, when the stress falls on the last syllable: this prevents all possibility of confusion with the pronunciation of ordinary plural forms. Place-names--such as Béjar (p. 58) and Córdoba (p. 184)--are accentuated; so are trisyllables and polysyllables such as Góngora (p. 209) and Zúñiga (p. 57 and elsewhere). It will be seen that, in this matter, I have been guided by strictly utilitarian principles. Inconsistencies are perhaps unavoidable under any system. The plan followed here, while it tends to diminish the total number of accents, probably involves no more inconsistencies than any other. It is based on rational grounds, and is, it may be hoped, less offensive to the eye than the current system. Quotations, I repeat, are reproduced exactly as they stand in the sources from which they profess to be taken.

With these words, I close what I have to say here on this subject and commend these pages to the indulgent judgement of my readers.

The following works, or articles, may be usefully consulted by the student of Spanish.

EDITIONS. LUIS DE LEON: _Obras_, ed. A. Merino, Madrid, 1804-5-6-16. 6 vols. [reprinted with a preface, by C. Muiños Sáenz, Madrid, 1885, 6 vols.]; _Biblioteca de Autores Españoles_, vols. XXXV, XXXVII, LIII, LXI, and LXII; _De los nombres de Cristo_, ed. F. de Onís, Madrid, 1914-1917 [Clásicos castellanos, vols. XXVIII and XXXIII]; _La perfecta casada_, ed. E. Wallace, Chicago, 1903; _La perfecta casada_, ed. A. Bonilla y San Martín, Madrid, 1917; _El perfecto predicador_, ed. C. Muiños Saenz in _La Ciudad de Dios_ (1886), vol. XI, pp. 340-348, 432-447, 527-537; (1886), vol. XII, pp. 15-25, 104-111, 211-218, 322-330, 420-427, 504-512; (1887), vol. XIII, pp. 32-38, 106-114, 213-222, 302-312; (1887), vol. XIV, pp. 9-17, 154-160, 305-315, 449-459, 581-591, 729-743; _Exposition del Miserere_ [facsimile of the Barcelona ed. of 1632], ed. A.M. Huntington, New York, 1903.

WORKS OF REFERENCE: _Proceso original que la Inquisicion de Valladolid hizo al maestro Fr. Luis de Leon, religioso del órden de S. Agustin_, ed. M. Salvá and P. Sainz de Baranda, in _Coleccion de Documentos inéditos para la Historia de España_ (Madrid, 1847), vol. X, pp. 5-575, and vol. XI, pp. 5-358; J. Gonzalez de Tejada, _Vida de Fray Luis de Leon_ (Madrid, 1863); C.A. Wilkens, _Fray Luis de Leon_ (Halle, 1866); A. Arango y Escandon, _Frai Luis de Leon, ensayo histórico_, 2ª ed. (Mexico, 1866) [the first edition appeared in _La Cruz_ (Mexico, 1855-56)]; F.H. Reusch, _Luis de Leon und die spanische Inquisition_ (Bonn, 1873); M. Gutiérrez, _El misticismo ortodoxo_ (Valladolid, 1886); M. Gutiérrez, _Fray Luis de León y la filosofía española del siglo_ XVI, 2ª ed. aumentada (Madrid, 1891) [_Adiciones póstumas_ in _La Ciudad de Dios_ (1907), vol. LXXIII, pp. 391-399, 478-494, 662-667; vol. LXXIV, pp. 49-55, 303-414, 487-496, 628-643; in _La Ciudad de Dios_ (1908), vol. LXXV, pp. 34-47, 215-221, 291-303, 472-486]; J.M. Guardia, _Fray Luis de Leon ou la poésie dans le cloître_, in the _Revue germanique_ (1863), vol. XXIV, pp. 307-342; M. Menéndez y Pelayo, _Horacio en España, Solaces bibliográficas_ 2ª ed. (Madrid, 1885), vol. I, pp. 11-24, vol. II, pp. 26-36; M. Menéndez y Pelayo, _Estudios de crítica literaria_, 1ª serie (Madrid, 1893), pp. 1-72; F. Blanco García, _Segundo proceso instruído por la Inquisición de Valladolid contra Fray Luis de León_ (Madrid, 1896); F. Blanco García, _Fray Luis de León: rectificaciones biográficas_, in the _Homenaje a Menéndez y Pelayo_ (Madrid, 1899), vol. I, pp. 153-160; J.D.M. Ford, _Luis de León, the Spanish poet, humanist and mystic_, in the _Publications of the Modern Language Association of America_ (Baltimore, 1899), vol. XIV, pp. 267-278; F. Blanco García, _Fr. Luis de León: estudio biográfico del insigne poeta agustino_ (Madrid, 1904); _Acta de la reposición de Fray Luis de León en una cátedra de la Universidad de Salamanca_ in the _Revista de Archivos, Bibliotecas y Museos_, Tercera época (1900), vol. IV, pp. 680-682; L.G. Alonso Getino, _La Causa de Fr. Luis de León ante la crítica y los nuevos documentos históricos_, in the _Revista de Archivos, Bibliotecas y Museos_, Tercera época (1903), vol. IX, pp. 148-156, 268-279, 440-449; (1904), vol. XI, pp. 288-306, 380-397; C. Muiños Sáenz, _El 'Decíamos ayer' de Fray Luis de León_, (Madrid, 1905); L. Alonso Getino, _Vida y procesos del maestro Fr. Luis de León_ (Salamanca, 1907); C. Muiños Sáenz _El 'Decíamos ayer'... y otros excesos_, in _La Ciudad de Dios_ (1909), vol. LXXVIII, pp. 479-495, 544-560; vol. LXXIX, pp. 18-34, 107-124, 191-212, 353-374, 529-552; vol. LXXX pp. 99-125, 177-197; F. de Onís _Sobre la trasmisión de la obra literaria de Fray Luis de León_, in the _Revista de Filología Española_ (Madrid, 1915), vol. II pp. 217-257; R. Menéndez Pidal, _Una poesia inédita de Fray Luis de León_, in the _Revista de Filología Española_ (Madrid, 1917), vol. IV, pp. 389-390; C. Pérez Pastor, _Bibliografía madrileña_ (Madrid, 1891-1906-1907), parte ii, pp. 254-255, and parte iii, pp. 404-409; G. Vázquez Núñez, _El padre Francisco Zumel, general de la Merced y catedrático de Salamanca_ (1540-1607), in _Revista de Archivos, Bibliotecas y Museos_, Tercera época (1918), vol. XXXVIII, pp. 1-19, 170-190; (1918), vol. XXXIX, pp. 53-67, 237-266; (1919), vol. XL, pp. 447-466, 562-594.

J. F-K.

PS. Had they reached me in time, the following two items would have been included in the respective sections of the foregoing summary bibliography: _Poesías originales de Fray Luis de León_, ed. F. de Onís, San José de Costa Rica, 1920; Ad. Coster, _Notes pour une édition des poésies de Luis de León_ in the _Revue hispanique_ (1919), vol. XLVI, pp. 193-248.