1 Castilian Literature

Poetry.

Rivas, Espronceda and Zorrilla owed more to foreign models than either Campoamor or Naliez de Arce. Campoamor has been described as a disciple of Heine, but he in fact continued in his own semi-philosophic fashion a national tradition of im memorial antiquity—the tradition of expressing lyrical emotion in four or eight lines which finds its most homely manifestation in the five volumes of Cantos populares espanoles edited by Fran cisco Rodriguez Marin. No less national a poet was Niafiez de Arce, whose best performance is Gritos del combate (1875). Absorbed by commerce, Vicente Wenceslao Querol (d. 1889) is represented by a single volume of poems as remarkable for their self-restraint as for a deep tenderness which finds expression in the Cartas a Maria. A more powerful and interesting personality was Joaquin Maria Bartrina (1850-1880), who endeavoured to transplant the pessimistic spirit of Leconte de Lisle to Spanish soil. Salvador Rueda y Santos (1857-1933), in his Aires es paiioles, represented the vivid colouring of Andalucia ; Vicente Medina (b. 1866) in Aires murcianos and La Canci6n de la huerta reproduces with vivid intensity the atmosphere of the Murcian orchard-country. Jose Maria Gabriel y Galan (d. 1905), was extremely unequal, and his range of subjects was limited, but in El Ama he produced a poem which is unsurpassed in the Spanish poetry of its time. But more truly a poet than any of these was Rosalia de Castro, whose one volume of poems not in the Galician dialect, En las orillas del Sar, was published in 1884.

Fiction.

Since 1850 there has been a notable renaissance of the Spanish novel. Fernan Caballero is entitled to an honourable place in literary history as perhaps the first to revive the native realism which was temporarily checked by the romantic move ment. In all that concerns truth and art she is superior to the once popular Manuel Fernandez y Gonzalez (d. 1888), of whom it has been said that Spain should erect a statue to him and should burn his novels at the foot of it. Antonio de Trueba followed Fernan Caballero in observing local customs. He had no gift of delineating character, and his plots are feeble; but he was not wanting in literary charm, and went his road of incorrigible op timism amid the applause of the crowd. His contemporary, Pedro Antonio de Alarcon, is remembered chiefly as the author of El Sombrero de tres picos (the Three-Cornered Hat), a delight ful and peculiarly Spanish tale of picaresque malice, more than once translated into English. Jose Maria de Pereda is the founder of the modern school of realistic fiction in Spain, and the boldness of his experiment startled a generation of readers accustomed to Fernan Caballero's feminine reticence and Trueba's deliberate conventionality.

His rival, Juan Valera, is not, in the restricted sense of the word, realistic, but he is no less real in his own wider province; he has neither Pereda's energy nor austerity of purpose, but has a more infallible tact, a larger experience of men and women, and his sceptical raillery is as effective a moral commentary as Pe reda's Christian pessimism. In Valera's Pepita Jimenez and Dona Luz, and in Pereda's Sotileza, we have a trio of Spanish heroines who deserve their fame. Benito Perez Galdos gave a new life to the historical novel in his huge series entitled Episodios na cionales. The colouring is so brilliant, the incident is so varied

and so full of interest, the spirit so stirring and patriotic, that the born Spaniard easily forgives their frequent prolixity. Their appeal is irresistible; there is also a considerable public for the politico-religious novels such as Dona Perfecta, Gloria and Leon Roch, which have been published in English versions. The quick response of Perez GaldOs to any external stimulus, his sensitive ness to every change in the literary atmosphere, made it inevitable that he should come under the influence of French naturalism as he does in Lo Prohibido and in Realidad; but his conversion was temporary, and two profound novels dealing with contemporary life-Fortunata y Jacinta and Angel Guerra-mark the third and culminating stage in the development of one of the greatest of Spanish novelists. The talent of Armando Palacio Valdes was first displayed in El Senorito Octavio. Two subsequent works-Marta y Maria and the delightful La Herman San Sulpicio-raised hopes that Spain had, in Palacio Valdes, a novelist of the first order to succeed Valera; but in La Espuma and La Fe, two social studies which contained caricatures of well-known personages, the author ceased to be national and did not become cosmopolitan.

Another novelist who for a time divided honours with Palacio Valdes was Emilia Pardo Bazars. The powerful, repellent pic tures of peasant life and the ethical daring of Los Pazos de Ulloa and La Madre Naturaleza are set off by graphic passages of de scription; and the local patriotism which inspires Insolacion and De mi tierra is expressed in a style which secures Emilia Pardo Bazan a high place among her contemporaries. Leopoldo Alas (1851-1901), who used the pseudonym of "Clarin," was better known as a ruthless critic than as a novelist; the interest of his shorter stories has evaporated, but his ambitious novel, La Regenta, lives as an original study of the relation between mysti cism and passion. Jacinto Octavio Picon (1852-1923), who de serted novel writing for criticism, displayed much insight in Ldzaro, the story of a priest who finds himself forced to lay down his orders; this work was naturally denounced by the clerical party, and orthodoxy declared equally against El Enemigo and Dulce y sabrosa; more impartial critics agree in admiring Pic6n's power of awakening sympathy and interest, his gift of minute psy chological analysis and his exquisite diction. Angel Ganivet (1865 1898) produced in Los Trabajos del infatigable creador Pio Cid a singular philosophical romance, rich in ideas and felicitous in ex pression, but lacking in narrative interest. Ramon del Valle Inclin (1869-1936) tended toward preciosity in Corte de Amor and Flor de Santidad; but in his four Sonatas, Primavera, Estio, Otono and Invierno (translated into English), he has produced a masterpiece, and in the protagonist, the Marques de Bradomin, a great character. (J. F.-K.; J. B. T.) Biblioteca de autores espanoles (Madrid, 1845-80), 71 vols.; Nueva bibl. de autores espanoles (Madrid, 1905 ) 25 vols. published; Clcisicos castellanos (Madrid, 1910- ), 86 vols. published (cheap editions with good introductions and notes).