Chapter X (3)

For a time after Olmedo's muse had become mute, little verse of merit was produced in Ecuador. Gabriel García Moreno (1821-1875), once president of the Republic and a champion of Catholicism, wrote a few strong satires in the style of Jovellanos. Dolores Veintemilla de Galindo (1831-1857), who committed suicide on account of domestic infelicity, left a short poem, _Quejas_, which is unique in the older Spanish-American literature by reason of its frank confession of feeling. The reflexive and didactic poet Numa P. Llona (1832-___) was the author of passionate outpourings of doubt and despair after the fashion of Byron and Leopardi (_Poesías_, Paris, 1870; page 300 _Cantos americanos_, Paris, 1866; _Cien sonetos_, Quito, 1881). The gentle, melancholy bard, Julio Zalumbide (1833-1887), at first a skeptic and afterwards a devout believer in Christianity, wrote musical verse in correct language but of little force. Juan León Mera (1832-1894) was one of the most prominent literary historians and critics of the Republic. Besides his _Poesías_ (2d ed., Barcelona, 1893), León Mera left a popular novel, _Cumandá_ (Quito, 1876; Madrid, 1891), an _Ojeada histórico-crítica sobre la poesía ecuatoriana_ (2d ed., Barcelona, 1893), and a volume of _Cantares del Pueblo_ (Quito, 1892), published by the Academia del Ecuador, which contains, in addition to many semi-popular songs in Castilian, a few in the Quichua language.

A younger generation that has already done some good work in poetry includes Vicente Pedrahita, Luis Cordero, Quintiliano Sánchez and Remigio Crespo y Toral.

References: Men. Pel., _Ant. Poetas Hisp.-Amer._, III, p. lxxxiii f.; Blanco García, III, 350 f.; _Ensayo sobre la literatura ecuatoriana_, Dr. Pablo Herrera, Quito, 1860; _Ojeada histórico-crítica sobre la poesía ecuatoriana_, Juan León Mera, Quito, 1868, 2d ed., Barcelona, 1893; _Escritores españoles é hispano-americanos_, Cañete, Madrid, 1884; _Lira ecuatoriana_, Vicente Emilio Molestina, Guayaquil, 1865; _Nueva lira ecuat._, Juan Abel Echeverría, Quito, 1879; _Parnaso ecuat._, Manuel Gallegos Naranjo, Quito, 1879; _América poética_, Juan María Gutiérrez, Valparaíso, 1846 (the best of the early anthologies: contains a few poems by Olmedo); _Antología ecuat._, published by the Academy of Ecuador, with a second volume entitled _Cantares del pueblo ecuat._ (Edited by Juan León Mera), both Quito, 1892.

=Peru.= The literature of Ecuador is so closely associated with that of Peru, that the one cannot be properly treated without some account of the other. The Virreinato del Perú was the wealthiest and most cultivated Spanish colony in South America, and in North America only Mexico rivaled it in influence. Lima, an attractive city, thoroughly Andalusian in character and appearance, was the page 301 site of important institutions of learning, such as the famed Universidad de San Marcos. It had, moreover, a printing-press toward the close of the sixteenth century, a public theater by 1602, and a gazette by the end of the seventeenth century. The spread of learning in colonial Peru may be illustrated by the fact that the Jesuits alone, at the time of their expulsion in 1767, had twelve colleges and universities in Peru, the oldest of which dated from the middle of the sixteenth century and offered courses in philosophy, law, medicine and theology.

The Peruvians seem to have been content with their lot as a favored Spanish colony, and they declared for independence only when incited to do so and aided by Bolivar of Colombia and San Martin of Buenos Aires. After the revolution, Peru was torn by internal discord rather more than other Spanish-American countries during the period of adolescence; and it was its misfortune to lose territory after territory. Bolivar took northern Peru, including the valuable seaport of Guayaquil, and made it a part of the first Colombia; and largely through the influence of Bolivar much of Upper Peru was made a separate republic, that of Bolivia. Lastly, Chile, for centuries a dependency of Peru, became independent and even wrested a considerable stretch of the litoral from her former mistress. It is hard to realize that Peru, to-day relatively weak among the American countries, was once the heart of a vast Inca empire and later the colony whose governors ruled the territories of Argentina and Chile to the south, and of Ecuador and Colombia to the north. With the decline of wealth and political influence there has come to Peru a decadence in letters. Lima is still a center of cultivation, a city in which the Castilian language and Spanish customs have been preserved with remarkable fidelity; but its importance is completely eclipsed by such growing commercial centers as Buenos Aires, Montevideo and Santiago de Chile, and by page 302 relatively small and conservative towns such as Bogotá.

In the sixteenth century Garcilasso Inga de la Vega (his mother was an "Inga," or Inca, princess), who had been well trained in the Latin classics by Spanish priests, wrote in excellent prose his famous works, _Florida del Inca_, _Comentarios reales_ and _Historia general del Perú_. The second work, partly historical and largely imaginary, purports to be a history of the ancient Incas, and pictures the old Peru as an earthly paradise. This work has had great influence over Peruvian and Colombian poets. Menéndez y Pelayo (_Ant. Poetas Hisp.-Amer._, III, _Introd._) considers Garcilasso, or Garcilaso, and Alarcón the two truly classic writers that America has given to Spanish literature.

In the Golden Age of Spanish letters several Peruvian poets were known to Spaniards. Cervantes, in the _Canto de Calíope_ and Lope de Vega in the _Laurel del Apolo_ make mention of several Peruvians who had distinguished themselves by their verses.

An unknown poetess of Huanuco, Peru, who signed herself "Amarilis," wrote a clever _silva_ in praise of Lope, which the latter answered in the epistle _Belardo á Amarilis_. This _silva_ of "Amarilis" is the best poetic composition of the early colonial period. Another poetess of the period, also anonymous, wrote in _terza rima_ a _Discurso en loor de la poesía_, which mentions by name most of the Peruvian poets then living.

Toward the close of the sixteenth century and in the early decades of the seventeenth century, several Spanish scholars, mostly Andalusians of the Sevillan school, went to Peru, and there continued literary work. Among these were Diego Mexía, who made the happiest of Spanish translations of Ovid's _Heroides_; Diego de Ojeda, the best of Spanish sacred-epic poets, author of the _Cristiada_; Juan Gálvez; Luis de Belmonte, author of _La Hispálica_; Diego de Avalos y Figueroa whose page 303 _Miscelánea austral_ (Lima, 1603) contains a long poem in _ottava rima_ entitled _Defensa de damas_; and others. These men exerted great influence, and to them was largely due the peculiarly Andalusian flavor of Peruvian poetry.

The best Gongoristic _Poetics_ came from Peru. This is the _Apologético en favor de D. Luis de Góngora_ (Lima, 1694), by Dr. Juan de Espinosa Medrano.

In the eighteenth century the poetic compositions of Peru were chiefly "_versos de circunstancias_" by "_poetas de ocasión_." Many volumes of these were published, but no one reads them to-day. Their greatest fault is excessive culteranism, which survived in the colonies a half-century after it had passed away from the mother country. The most learned man of the eighteenth century in Peru was Pedro de Peralta Barnuevo, the erudite author of some fifty volumes of history, science and letters. His best known poem is the epic _Lima fundada_ (Lima, 1732). He wrote several dramas, one of which, _Rodoguna_, is Corneille's play adapted to the Spanish stage, and has the distinction of being one of the first imitations of the French stage in Spanish letters. All in all, the literary output of Peru during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries is disappointingly small in quantity and poor in quality, in view of the important position held by this flourishing colony. The Peruvian writers, then and now, lack in sustained effort.

During and immediately following the revolutionary period, the greatest poet is Olmedo, who was born and educated in Peru and became a citizen first of the primitive Colombia and then of Ecuador, only as his native city, Guayaquil, formed a part of one political division after another. It is customary, however, to consider Olmedo a poet of Ecuador, and it is so done in this volume.

After Olmedo, the commanding figure among the classical poets of Peru is Felipe Pardo y Aliaga (1806-1868). Pardo was educated in Spain, where he studied with Alberto Lista. From his teacher he acquired a fondness page 304 for classical studies and a conservatism in letters that he retained throughout his life. In his later years he was induced to adopt some of the metrical forms invented or revived by the romanticists, but in spirit he remained a conservative and a classicist. He had a keen sense of wit and a lively imagination which made even his political satires interesting reading. Besides his _Poesías y escritos en prosa_ (Paris, 1869), Pardo left a number of comedies portraying local types and scenes which are clever attempts at imitation of Spanish drama. As with all the earlier poets of Spanish America, literature was only a side-play to Pardo, although it probably took his time and attention even more than the law, which was his profession. A younger brother, José (1820-1873), wrote a few short poems, but his verses are relatively limited and amateurish. Manuel Ascensión Segura (1805-1871) wrote clever farces filled with descriptions of local customs, somewhat after the type of the modern _género chico_ (_Artículos, poesías y comedias_, Lima, 1866).

The romantic movement came directly from Spain to Peru and obtained a foothold only well on toward the close of the first half of the century. The leader of the Bohemian romanticists of Lima was a Spaniard from Santander, Fernando Velarde. Around him clustered a group of young men who imitated Espronceda and Zorrilla and Velarde with great enthusiasm. For an account of the "Bohemians" of the fourth and fifth decades in Lima [Numa Pompilio Llona (b. 1832), Nicolás Corpancho (1830-1863), Luis Benjamín Cisneros (b. 1837), Carlos Augusto Salaverry (1830-1891), Manuel Ascensión Segura (b. 1805), Clemente Althaus (1835-1881), Adolfo García (1830-1883), Constantino Carrasco (1841-1877) and others, see the introduction to the _Poesías_ (Lima, 1887) of Ricardo Palma (1833-___: till 1912 director of the national library of Peru).]

Not often could the romanticists of America go back to page 305 indigenous legend for inspiration as their Spanish cousins so often did; but this Constantino Carrasco undertook to do in his translation of the famous Quichua drama, _Ollanta_. It was long claimed, and many still believe, that this is an ancient indigenous play; but to-day the more thoughtful critics are inclined to consider it an imitation of the Spanish classical drama, perhaps written in the Quichua language by some Spanish priest (Valdés?). The 8-syllable lines, the rime-scheme and the spirit of the play all suggest Spanish influence. In parenthesis it should be added that Quichua verse is still cultivated artificially in Peru and Ecuador.

The two men of that generation who have most distinguished themselves are Pedro Paz-Soldán y Unanue, "Juan de Arona" (1839-1894), a poet of satire and humor; and Ricardo Palma (1833-___) a leading scholar and literary critic, best known for his prose _Tradiciones peruanas_ (Lima, 1875 and 1899).

The strongest representative of the present-day "_modernistas_" in Peru is José Santos Chocano (1867-___), a disciple of Darío. Chocano writes with much grandiloquence. His many sonnets are mostly prosaic, but some are finished and musical (cf. _La magnolia_). He is more Christian (cf. _Evangeleida_) than most of his contemporaries, and he sings of the _conquistadores_ with true admiration [cf. _En la aldea_, Lima, 1895; _Iras santas_, Lima, 1895; _Alma América_ (_Prólogo_ de Miguel de Unamuno), Madrid, 1906; _La selva virgen_, Paris, 1901; _Fiat lux_, Paris, 1908].

A younger man is Edilberto Zegarra Ballón of Arequipa (1880-___), author of _Vibraciones, Poemas, el al._ His verse is simpler and less rugged than that of the more virile Chocano.

References: Men. Pel., _Ant. Poetas Hisp.-Amer._, III,
p. cxlix f.; Blanco García, III, 362 f.; _Diccionario
histórico y biográfico del Perú, formado y redactado
por Manuel de Mendíburu_, 9 vols., Lima, 1874-80;
_Colección de documentos literarios del Perú_, 11
vols., Manuel de Odriozola, Lima, 1863-74; page 306
_América poética_, Juan María Gutiérrez, Valparaíso,
1846; _Parnaso peruano_, J.D. Cortés, Paris, 1875; _La
Bohemia limeña de 1848 á 1860, Prólogo de Poesías de
Ricardo Palma_, Lima, 1887; _Lira americana,_ Ricardo
Palma, Paris, 1865.

=193.=--Olmedo: see preceding note.

8. =Á=, _with_.

=194.=--15-17. The following is a translation of a note to these lines which is given in _Poesías de Olmedo_, Garnier Hermanos, Paris, 1896: "Physicists have attempted to explain the equilibrium that is maintained by the earth in spite of the difference of mass in its two hemispheres" (northern and southern). "May not the enormous weight of the Andes be one of the data with which this curious problem of physical geography can be solved?"

=195.=--4. The religion of the ancient Peruvians, before they were converted to Christianity by the Spaniards, was based on the worship of the sun. The chief temple of the sun was at Cuzco.

25. Bolivar was a native of Caracas, Venezuela; but, when this poem was written, Colombia comprised most of the present States of Venezuela, Colombia, Panama and Ecuador. Moreover, Colombia is probably used somewhat figuratively by the poet to designate the "land of Columbus."

26. The Peruvians and the Colombians were allies. It is an interesting fact that in the war for independence waged by the Spanish Americans against Spain, the leaders of the Americans were nearly all of Spanish descent, while the majority of the rank and file of the American soldiery was Indian. To this day, a majority of the population of Spanish America, excepting only Chile, Argentina and the West Indian Islands, is indigenous, and their poets still sing of "indigenous America," but they sing in the Spanish tongue! See p. 211, l. 7. page 307 =196.=--21. See note to p. 162, l. 8. The Peruvian flag has an image of the _sun_ in its center.

23. It is reported that the first onslaught of the Spanish-American cavalry failed, partly by reason of their impetuousness, and that they would probably have been defeated if Bolivar had not rallied them and led them on to victory.

=198.=--10. The battle of Junin began at about five o'clock in the afternoon, and it is said that only night saved the Spaniards from complete destruction.

11. =El dios oía=: destiny did not permit the god to stay his course for an hour, but the god left behind him his circlet of diamonds (the stars).

=199.=--=Mexico.= The Virreinato de Nueva España was a favored colony, where Spanish culture took deepest root. It had the first institution of learning in America (opened in 1553 by decree of Charles I) and the first printing-press (1540?). Some 116 books were printed in Mexico City during the sixteenth century, most of which were catechisms or grammars and dictionaries in the native languages. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries several Spanish poets, mostly Sevillans, went to Mexico. Among these were Diego Mexía (went to Mexico in 1596); Gutierre de Cetina, Juan de la Cueva, and Mateo Alemán (published _Ortografía castellana_ in Mexico in 1609). _Certámenes poéticos_ ("poetic contests") were held in Mexico, as in other Spanish colonies, from time to time. The first of importance occurred in Mexico City in 1583, to which seven bishops lent the dignity of their presence and in which three hundred poets (?) competed. After the discovery and conquest of the Philippines, great opulence came to Mexico on account of its being on a direct route of Pacific trade between Europe and Asia, and Mexico became an emporium of Asiatic goods (note introduction of Mexican dollar into China).

The first native poet deserving of the name was Francisco page 308 de Terrazas (cf. Cervantes, _Canto de Calíope_, 1584), who left in manuscript sonnets and other lyrics and an unfinished epic poem, _Nuevo mundo y conquista_. It is interesting that in the works of Terrazas and other native poets of the sixteenth century the Spaniards are called "_soberbios_," "_malos_," etc. Antonio Saavedra Guzmán was the first in Mexico to write in verse a chronicle of the conquest (_El peregrino indiano_, Madrid, 1599). _Coloquios espirituales_ (published posthumously in 1610), _autos_ of the "morality" type, with much local color and partly in dialect, were written by Fernán González Eslava, whom Pimentel considers the best sacred dramatic poet of Mexico. Sacred dramatic representations had been given in Spanish and in the indigenous languages almost from the time of the conquest. According to Beristain, at least two plays of Lope were done into Nahuatl by Bartolomé de Alba, of native descent, and performed, _viz._: _El animal profeta y dichoso parricida_ and _La madre de la Mejor_.

The first poet whose verses are genuinely American, exotic and rich in color like the land in which written (a rare quality in the Spanish poetry of the period), was Bernardo de Balbuena (1568-1627: born in Spain; educated in Mexico). Balbuena had a strong descriptive faculty, but his work lacked restraint (cf. _Grandeza mexicana_, Mex., 1604; Madrid, 1821, 1829 and 1837; N.Y., 1828; Mex., 1860). The great dramatist, Juan Ruiz de Alarcón (1581?-1639), was born and educated in Mexico; but as he wrote in Spain, and his dramas are Spanish in feeling, he is best treated as a Spanish poet.

Next only to Avellaneda the most distinguished Spanish-American poetess is the Mexican nun, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (1651-1695), whose worldly name was Juana Inés de Asbaje y Ramírez de Cantillana. Sor Juana had intellectual curiosity in an unusual degree and early began the study of Latin and other languages. When still a young girl she became a maid-in-waiting in the viceroy's palace, where her beauty and wit attracted much page 309 attention; but she soon renounced the worldly life of the court and joined a religious order. In the convent of San Jerónimo she turned for solace to books, and in time she accumulated a library of four thousand volumes. Upon being reproved by a zealous bishop for reading worldly books, she sold her entire library and gave the proceeds to the poor. Sor Juana's better verses are of two kinds: those that give evidence of great cleverness and mental acuteness, and those that have the ring of spontaneity and sincerity. As an exponent of erotic mysticism, she is most interesting. In the most passionate of her erotic verses there is an apparent sincerity which makes it difficult for the lay reader to believe that she had not been profoundly influenced by human love,--as when she gives expression to the feelings of a loving wife for a dead husband, or laments the absence of a lover or tells of a great jealousy. In addition to her lyrics Sor Juana wrote several _autos_ and dramas. Her poems were first published under the bombastic title of _Inundación castálida de la única poetisa, Musa décima, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz_, Madrid, 1689 (vol. II, Seville, 1691; vol. III, Madrid, 1700).

During the first half of the eighteenth century the traditions of the preceding century persisted; but in the second half there came the neo-classic reaction. Among the best of the prosaic poets of the century are: Miguel de Reyna Zeballos (_La elocuencia del silencio_, Madrid, 1738); Francisco Ruiz de León (_Hernandía_, 1755, based on the _Conquista de México_ by Solís); and the priest Jorge José Sartorio (1746-1828: _Poesías sagradas y profanas_, 7 vols., Puebla, 1832). The Franciscan Manuel de Navarrete (1768-1809) is considered by Pimentel superior to Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz as a philosophic poet (the writer of this article does not so consider him) and is called the "restorer of lyric and objective poetry in Mexico" (cf. Pim., _Hist. Poesía Mex._, p. 442). Navarrete wrote in a variety of styles. His verses are harmonious, but _altisonante_ and often incorrect. His best page 310 lyrics, like those of Cienfuegos, have the personal note of the romanticists to follow (_Entretenimientos poéticos_, Mex., 1823, Paris, 1835; _Poesías_, Mex., 1905).

There were no eminent Mexican poets during the revolutionary period. Andrés Quintana Roo (1787-1851) was a lawyer and journalist and president of the congress which made the first declaration of independence. Pimentel (p. 309) calls him an eminent poet and one of the best of the period. Two of the most important in the period are: Manuel Sánchez de Tagle (1782-1847), a statesman given to philosophic meditation, but a poor versifier (_Poesías_, 1852); and Francisco Ortega (1793-1849), an ardent republican, who opposed Iturbide when the latter had himself proclaimed emperor of Mexico in 1821 (_Poesías líricas_, 1839; cf. _Á Iturbide en su coronación_). To these should be added Joaquín María del Castillo y Lanzas (1781-1878), one-time minister to the United States (_Ocios juveniles_, Philadelphia, 1835); and the priest Anastasio María Ochoa (1783-1833), who translated French, Italian, and Latin (Ovid's _Heroides_) works, and wrote some humorous verses (_Poesías_, N.Y., 1828: contains two dramas).

Next to Alarcón, the greatest dramatist that Mexico has produced is Manuel Eduardo de Gorostiza (1789-1851), who wrote few lyric verses, but many dramas in verse and prose. His plays, which are full of humorous contrasts, were written during his residence in Spain and are, for the most part, typically Spanish in all respects. Gorostiza, in manner and style, is considered a bridge between Moratín and Bretón. His best comedy is _La indulgencia para todos_ (cf. _Teatro original_, Paris, 1822; _Teatro escogido_, Bruxelles, 1825; _Obras dramáticas_, _Bibl. Aut. Mex._, vols. 22, 24, 26, 45, Mex.,-1899).

Romanticism came into Mexico through Spain. It was probably introduced by Ignacio Rodríguez Galván (1816-1842), a translator, lyric poet, and page 311 dramatist. His lyrics have the merit of sincerity; pessimism is the prevailing tone and there is much invective. His _Profecías de Guatimoc_ is considered the masterpiece of Mexican romanticism (_Obras_, 2 vols., Mex., 1851; Paris, 1883). Another well-known romantic lyricist and dramatist is Fernando Calderón (1809-1845), who was more correct in form than Rodríguez Galvan (_Poesías_, Mex., 1844 and 1849; Paris, 1883; Mex., 1902).

The revival of letters in Mexico is generally attributed to the conservative poets Pesado and Carpio, both of whom sought to be classic, although they were not altogether so in practise. Probably the best known Mexican poet, though certainly not the most inspired, is José Joaquín Pesado (1801-1861). He translated much from Latin, French and Italian, and in some cases failed to acknowledge his indebtedness (cf. Pimentel, p. 694). His best translations are of the Psalms. The _Aztecas_, which were published as a translation of, or an adaptation from, indigenous legends, are mostly original with Pesado in all probability. He is an unusually even writer, and some of his verses are good (cf. certain sonnets: _Mi amada en la misa del alba_, which reminds one of Meléndez Valdés in _Rosana en los fuegos_; _Elegía al ángel de la guardia de Elisa_; and parts of _La revelación_ in _octavas reales_). Montes de Oca and Menéndez y Pelayo consider Pesado the greatest of Mexican poets; but Pimentel does not (p. 694). Cf. _Poesías originales y traducciones_, Mex., 1839-40 (most complete), 1886 (introduction of Montes de Oca); _Biografía de Pesado_, by José María Roa Bárcena, Mex., 1878. Manuel Carpio (1791-1860) began to write verses after he had reached the age of forty years, and there is, consequently, a certain ripeness of thought and also a lack of feeling in his poetry. His verses are chiefly narrative or descriptive and generally treat of biblical subjects. His language is usually correct, but often prosaic (_Poesías_, Mex., 1849). page 312 Minor poets of this period are: Alejandro Arango (1821-1883), an imitator of León (_Versos_, 1879; _Ensayo histórico sobre Fr. Luis de León_, Mex., 1866); Ignacio Ramírez (1818-1879), of Indian race, who was a free lance in religion and politics, and largely responsible for the separation of Church and State in Mexico (_Poesías_, Mex., 1889, and _Lecciones de literatura_, Mex., 1884); and Ignacio M. Altamarino (1834-1893), an erotic and descriptive poet (_Obras_, Mex., 1899).

The most popular Mexican poets during the second half of the nineteenth century have been Acuña, Flores, Peza and Gutiérrez Nájera. A materialistic iconoclast, Manuel Acuña (1849-1873) was uneven and incorrect in language, but capable of deep poetic feeling. In his _Poesías_ (Garnier, Paris, 8th ed.) there are two short poems that may live: _Nocturno_, a passionate expression of disappointment in love; and _Ante un cadáver_, a poem of dogmatic materialism. Acuña committed suicide at the age of twenty-four years. Manuel María Flores (1840-1885), an erotic poet largely influenced by Musset, is very popular in Mexico (_Pasionarias_, Paris, 1911). Probably the most widely read poet of the period is Juan de Dios Peza (1852-1910). His verses are often incorrect and weak, as he improvised much; but they are interesting, as they usually treat of homely topics (_Poesías completas: El arpa del amor_, 1891; _Hogar y patria_, 1891; _Leyendas_, 1898; _Flores del alma; Recuerdos y esperanzas_, 1899, Garnier, Paris). The romantic pessimist, Manuel Gutiérrez Nájera (d. 1888), was tormented throughout life by the vain quest of happiness and the thirst of truth. His verses, which are often elegiac or fantastic, are highly admired by the younger generation of Mexican poets. In a letter to the writer of this article, Blanco-Fombona praises Gutiérrez Nájera above all other Mexican poets (_Poesías_, Paris, 1909, 2 vols.).

References: Menéndez y Pelayo, _Ant. Poetas
Hisp.-Amer._, I, p. xiv f.: Blanco García, III, 304
f.; Francisco Pimentel, _Historia crítica de la page 313
poesía en México_, Mex., 1892; _Biblioteca
hispano-americana septentrional_, D. José Mariano
Beristain de Souza, Mex., 1816-21, 3 vols. (has more
than 4000 titles),--reprinted by Fortino Hipólito de
Vera, Amecameca, 1883; _Bibliografía mexicana del
siglo XVI (catálogo razonado de los libros impresos
in México de 1539 á 1600)_; _Biografías de mexicanos
distinguidos_, D. Francisco Sosa, Mex., 1884; _Poetas
yucatecos y tabasqueños_, D. Manuel Sánchez Mármol y
D. Alonso de Regil y Peón, Mérida de Yucatán, 1861;
_Poetisas mexicanas_, Bogotá, 1889; _Colección
de poesias mexicanas_, Paris, 1836; _El parnaso
mexicano_, 36 vols., R.B. Ortega, Mex., 1886;
_Biblioteca de autores mexicanos_, some 75 vols. to
1911, Mex.; _Antología de poetas mexicanos_, publ. by
Acad. Mex., Mex., 1894; _Poetas mexicanos_, Carlos
G. Amézaga, Buenos Aires, 1896; _Los trovadores de
México_, Barcelona, 1900.

Pesado: see preceding note.

=La Serenata=: see _Introduction, Versification_, p. lxviii.

=200.=--6-11. These lines of Pesado are similar to those found in the first stanzas of _Su alma_ by Milanés. See Hills' _Bardos cubanos_ (Boston, 1901), p. 69.

Calderón: see note to p. 199.

=202.=--Acuña: see note to p. 199.

=204.=--15. The language is obscure, but the meaning seems to be: _borrarte (á ti que estás) en mis recuerdos_.

19. The forced synalepha of =yo haga= is discordant and incorrect.

=204.=--23 to =205.=--8. That is, when the altar was ready for the marriage ceremony, and the home awaited the bride. The reference, apparently, is to a marriage at an early hour in the morning,--a favored time for marriages in Spanish lands.

=208.=--1. =la alma=, by poetic license, since _el alma_ would make the line too long by one syllable.

=207.=--Peza: see note to p. 199.

=211.=--Darío: with the appearance in 1888 of a small volume of prose and verse entitled _Azul_, by Rubén Darío (1864-) of Nicaragua, there triumphed in Spanish America the "movement of emancipation," the "literary page 314 revolution," which the "decadents" had already initiated in France. As romanticism had been a revolt against the empty formalism of later neo-classicism, so "decadence" was a reaction against the hard, marmoreal forms of the "Parnasse," and in its train there came inevitably a general attack on poetic traditions. This movement was hailed with joy by the young men of Latin America, who are by nature more emotional and who live in a more voluptuous environment than their cousins in Spain; for they had come to chafe at the coldness of contemporary Spanish poetry, at its lack of color and its "petrified metrical forms." With the success of the movement there was for a time a reign of license, when poet vied with poet in defying the time-honored rules, not only of versification, but also of vocabulary and syntax. But as in France, so in Spanish America, "decadence" has had its day, although traces of its passing are everywhere in evidence, and the best that was in it still lingers.

To-day the Spanish-American poets are turning their attention more and more to the study of sociological problems or to the cementing of racial solidarity. These notes ring clear in some recent poems of Darío, and of José S. Chocano of Peru and Rufino Blanco-Fombona of Venezuela. The lines given in the text are an ode which was addressed to Mr. Roosevelt when he was president of the United States from 1901 to 1909. The meter of the poem is mainly the Old Spanish Alexandrine, but with a curious intermingling of lines of nine, ten and eight syllables, and with assonance of the even lines throughout. In all fairness it should be stated here that Señor Darío, in a recent letter to the writer of these _Notes_, said: "I do not think to-day as I did when I wrote those verses" (Darío: _Epístolas y poemas_, 1885; _Abrojos_, 1887; _Azul_, 1888; _Cantos de vida y esperanza_, Madrid, 1905; _El canto errante_, Madrid, 1907). page 315 =212.=--8. Argentina and Chile are the most progressive of the Spanish-American States. The Argentine flag is blue and white, with a _sun_ in the center; the flag of Chile has a white and a red bar, and in one corner a white _star_ on a blue background.

11. This refers, of course, to the colossal bronze Statue of Liberty by the French sculptor, Frédéric Bartholdi, which stands in New York harbor.

14. In a letter to the writer of these _Notes_, Senor Darío explains this passage as follows: "Bacchus, or Dionysius, after the conquest of India (I refer to the semi-historical and not to the mythological Bacchus) is supposed to have gone to other and unknown countries. I imagine that those unknown countries were America. Pan, who accompanied Bacchus on his journey, taught those new men the alphabet. All this is related to the tradition of the arrival of bearded men, strangely dressed, in the American countries.... These traditions exist in the South as well as the North."

16. =Que consultó los astros=: the ancient Peruvians and Mexicans had made considerable progress in the study of astronomy.

=214.=--=Venezuela.= During the colonial period the development of literary culture was slower in the Capitanía de Caracas than in Colombia, Peru and Mexico. The Colegio de Santa Rosa, which was founded at Caracas in 1696, was made a university in 1721. Not till 1806 was the first printing-press set up in the colony.

Poetry in Venezuela begins with Bello, for the works of his predecessors had little merit. Andrés Bello (1781-1865) was the most consummate master of poetic diction among Spanish-American poets, although he lacked the brilliancy of Olmedo and the spontaneity of Heredia. Born in Caracas and educated in the schools of his native city, Bello was sent to England in the year 1810 to further the cause of the revolution, and he remained in that country till 1829, when he was called to page 316 Chile to take service in the Department of Foreign Affairs. His life may, therefore, be divided into three distinct periods. In Caracas he studied chiefly the Latin and Spanish classics and the elements of international law, and he made metrical translations of Virgil and Horace. Upon arriving in England at the age of twenty-nine years, he gave himself with enthusiasm to the study of Greek, Italian and French, as well as to English. Bello joined with the Spanish and Hispano-American scholars in London in the publication of several literary reviews, notably the _Censor americano_ (1820), the _Biblioteca americana_ (1823) and the _Repertorio americano_ (1826-27), and in these he published many of his most important works. Here appeared his studies of Old French and of the _Song of My Cid_, his excellent translation of fourteen cantos of Boiardo's _Orlando innamorato_, several important articles on Spanish syntax and prosody, and the best of all his poems, the _Silvas americanas_.

In 1829, when already forty-eight years of age, Bello removed to Chile, and there entered upon the happiest period of his life. Besides working in a government office, he gave private lessons until in 1831 he was made rector of the College of Santiago. In the year 1843 the University of Chile was established at Santiago and Bello became its first rector. He held this important post till his death twenty-two years later at the ripe age of eighty-four. During this third and last period of his life Bello completed and published his _Spanish Grammar_ and his _Principles of International Law_, works which, with occasional slight revisions, have been used as standard text-books in Spanish America and to some extent in Spain, to the present day. The _Grammar_, especially, has been extraordinarily successful, and the edition with notes by José Rufino Cuervo is still the best text-book of Spanish grammar we have. In the _Grammar_ Bello sought to free Castilian from Latin terminology; but he desired, most of all, to correct the abuses so common to writers page 317 of the period and to establish linguistic unity in Spanish America.

Bello wrote little original verse during these last years of his life. At one time he became exceedingly fond of Victor Hugo and even tried to imitate him; but his classical training and methodical habits made success impossible. His best poetic work during his residence in Chile, however, are translations of Victor Hugo, and his free metrical rendering of _La Prière pour tous_ (from the _Feuilles d'automne_), is amongst his finest and most popular verses.

It is interesting that Andrés Bello, the foremost of Spanish-American scholars in linguistics and in international law, should also have been a preëminent poet, and yet all critics, except possibly a few of the present-day "_modernistas_," place his _American Silvas_ amongst the best poetic compositions of all Spanish America. The _Silvas_ are two in number: the _Alocución á la poesía_ and the _Silva á la agricultura de la zona tórrida_. The first is fragmentary: apparently the poet despaired of completing it, and he embodied in the second poem an elaboration of those passages of the first work which describe nature in the tropics. The _Silvas_ are in some degree imitations of Virgil's _Georgics_, and they are the best of Spanish imitations. Menéndez y Pelayo, who is not too fond of American poets, is willing to admit (_Ant._, II, p. cxlii) that Bello is, "in descriptive and Georgic verse, the most Virgilian of our (Spanish) poets." Caro, in his splendid biography of Bello (in Miguel Antonio Caro's introduction to the _Poesías de Andrés Bello_, Madrid, 1882) classifies the _Silvas_ as "scientific poetry," which is quite true if this sort of poetry gives an esthetic conception of nature, expressed in beautiful terms and adorned with descriptions of natural objects. It is less true of the _Alocución_, which is largely historical, in that it introduces and sings the praises of towns and persons that won fame in the revolutionary wars. The _Silva á la agricultura_, page 318 which is both descriptive and moral, may be best described in the words of Caro. It is, says this distinguished critic, "an account of the beauty and wealth of nature in the tropics, and an exhortation to those who live in the equator that, instead of wasting their strength in political and domestic dissensions, they should devote themselves to agricultural pursuits." Bello's interest in nature had doubtless been stimulated by the coming of Humboldt to Caracas in the first decade of the nineteenth century. In his attempt to express his feeling for nature in poetic terms, he probably felt the influence not only of Virgil, but also of Arriaza, and of the several poems descriptive of nature written in Latin by Jesuit priests, such as the once famous _Rusticatio Mexicana_ by Father Landivar of Guatemala. And yet there is very little in the _Silvas_ that is directly imitative. The _Silva á la agricultura de la zona tórrida_, especially, is an extraordinarily successful attempt to give expression in Virgilian terms to the exotic life of the tropics, and in this it is unique in Spanish literature. The beautiful descriptive passages in this poem, the noble ethical precepts and the severely pure diction combine to make it a classic that will long hold an honored place in Spanish-American letters (_Obras completas_, Santiago de Chile, 1881-93).

During the revolutionary period the most distinguished poets, after Bello, of that part of the greater Colombia which later formed the separate republic of Venezuela, were Baralt and Ros de Olano. Rafael María Baralt (1810-1860) took part in the revolutionary movement of secession from the first Colombia; but later he removed to Spain and became a Spanish citizen. His verses are usually correct, but lack feeling. He is best known as a historian and maker of dictionaries. Baralt was elected to membership in the Spanish Academy (_Poesías_, Paris, 1888).

General Antonio Ros de Olano (1802-1887) also removed to page 319 Spain and won high rank in the Spanish army. He joined the romantic movement and became a follower of Espronceda. Besides a volume of verses (_Poesías_, Madrid, 1886), Ros de Olano wrote _El doctor Lañuela_ (1863) and other novels. Both Baralt and Ros de Olano were identified with literary movements in Spain rather than in Venezuela.

José Heriberto García de Quevedo (1819-1871) was a cultivated and ambitious scholar who collaborated with Zorrilla in _María_, _Ira de Dios_ and _Un cuento de amores_. Among his better works are the three philosophical poems: _Delirium_, _La segunda vida_ and _El proscrito_ (_Obras poéticas y literarias_, Paris, 1863). Among the lesser writers of this period are Antonio Maitín (1804-1874), the best of Venezuelan romanticists (cf. _El canto fúnebre_, a poem of domestic love); Abigail Lozano (1821-1866), a romanticist and author of musical but empty verses ("_versos altisonantes_"); José Ramón Yepes (1822-1881), an army officer and the author of legends in verse, besides the inevitable _Poesías_; Eloy Escobar (1824-1889), an elegiac poet; and Francisco G. Pardo (1829-1872), a mediocre imitator of Zorrilla.

Next to Bello alone, the most distinguished poet of Venezuela is José Pérez Bonalde (1846-1892), who was a good German scholar and left, besides his original verses, excellent translations of German poets. His metrical versions of Heine, especially, exerted considerable influence over the growth of literary feeling in Spanish America (_Estrofas_, N.Y., 1877; _El poema del Niágara_, N.Y., 1880). At least two other writers of the second half of the nineteenth century deserve mention: Miguel Sánchez Pesquera and Jacinto Gutiérrez Coll.

Among the present-day writers of Venezuela, Luis López Méndez was one of the first to introduce into Spanish America a knowledge of the philosophy and metrical theories of Paul Verlaine. Manuel Díaz Rodríguez (1868-___) has written little verse; but he is the best known Venezuelan novelist of to-day [_Sangre page 320 patricia, Camino de perfección_ (essays), _Ídolos rotos_, _Cuentos_, 2 vols., _Confidencias de Psiquis_, _Cuentos de color_, _Sensaciones de viaje_, _De mis romerías_]. The most influential of the younger writers is Rufino Blanco-Fombona, who was expelled from his native country by the present _andino_ ("mountaineer") government and now lives in exile in Paris. At first a disciple of Musset and then of Heine and Maupassant, he is now an admirer of Darío and a pronounced _modernista_. His _Letras y letrados de Hispano-America_ is the best recent work of literary criticism by a Spanish-American author. Blanco-Fombona is a singer of youthful ambition, force and robust love. His verses have rich coloring, but are at times erotic or lacking in restraint (prose works: _Cuentos de poeta_, Maracaibo, 1900; _Más allá de los horizontes_, Madrid, 1903; _Cuentos americanos_, Madrid, 1904; _El hombre de hierro_, Caracas, 1907; _Letras y letrados de Hispano-America_, Paris, 1908. Verses: _Patria_, Caracas, 1895; _Trovadores y trovas_, Caracas, 1899; _Pequeña ópera lírica_, Madrid, 1904; _Cantos de la prisión_, Paris, 1911).

References: Menéndez y Pelayo, _Ant. Poetas
Hisp.-Amer._, II, p. cx f.; Blanco García, III, p. 321
f.; _Reseña histórica de la literatura venezolana_
(1888) and _Estado actual de la literatura en
Venezuela_ (1892), both by Julio Calcaño, Caracas; _La
literatura venezolana en el siglo XIX_, Gonzalo Picón
Febres, Caracas, 1906; _Parnaso venezolano_, 12
vols., Julio Calcaño, Caracas, 1892; _Biblioteca de
escritores venezolanos_, José María Rojas, Paris,
1875; _Parnaso venezolano_, Barcelona, 1906.

Bello: see preceding note.

1. The _Lion_ symbolizes Spain, since from the medieval kingdom of Leon modern Spain sprang. The battle of Bailén (see in _Vocab._) took place in 1808 when Bello was twenty-seven years of age and still loyal to Spain.

=214.=--16 to =215.=--3. =Que... concibes= = _que circunscribes el vago curso_ =al= _(= del) sol enamorado, y (tú), acariciada de su luz, concibes_ =cuanto page 321 ser= (= every being that) _se anima en cada vario clima._

18. The use of =quien= referring to inanimate objects is now archaic.

=216.=--19 to =217.=--3. It is said that the banana gives nourishment to more human beings than does any other plant. The fruit is taken when it is still green, before the starch has turned to sugar, and it is boiled, or baked, or it is ground and made into a coarse bread.

6-8. =En que... bondadosa!= = _en que (la) naturaleza bondadosa quiso hacer reseña de sus favores..._

9. The student should compare this and the following lines with _Vida retirada_ by Fray Luis de León, p. 9.

19. The rime requires =habita=, instead of _habitad_.

22-23. =Y... atada= = _y la razón va atada al triunfal carro de la moda, universal señora_.

=219.=--10-16. =¿Esperaréis... ata?= = _¿esperaréis que (el) himeneo forme más venturosos lazos do el interés, tirano del deseo, barata ajena mano y fe por nombre ó plata, que do conforme gusto, conforme edad, y_ (= both) _elección libre y_ (= and) _mutuo ardor ata los lazos?_ Note that, by poetic license, =ata= agrees in number with the nearest subject, although it has two.

=220.=--8-11. As this poem was written after the Spanish-American colonies had revolted against the mother country, Bello no longer rejoices at the success of Spanish arms nor grieves over their losses, as he had done when he wrote _Á la victoria de Bailén_.

Pérez Bonalde: see note to p. 214.

=222.=--5. The Venezuelan flag is yellow, blue and red with seven small white stars in the center.

=225.=--=La carcelera=: the words and music of this song and of the first that follows are taken from the _Cancionero salmantino_ (Dámaso Ledesma), Madrid, 1907.

=227.=--=La cachucha=: the words and music of this song and of the five that immediately follow are taken page 322 from _Poesías populares_ (Tomás Segarra), Leipzig, 1862.

=238.=--=El trágala=: (lit., _the swallow it_) a song with which the Spanish liberals taunted the partizans of an absolute government.

=242.=--=Himno de Riego=: a song to the liberal general, Rafael de Riego (1784-1823), who initiated the revolution of 1820 in Spain and proclaimed at Cabezas de San Juan the constitution of 1812. Cf. _Versification_, p. lxxix.

=251.=--=Himno Nacional de Cuba=, called also the =Himno de Bayamo=, on account of the importance of Bayamo (see in _Vocab._) in the Cuban revolution of 1868. Note the ternary movement of this song, and see _Versification_, p. lxxiii.