SPAIN (POETRY.) 



343 



Castilian language came to be considered as the 

 standard of Spanish, and became the idiom of the 

 court and the learned, whilst the other languages 

 sunk into mere dialects of the common people. Thus 

 we find, at last, but, three chief divisions in the 

 Spanish romanzo, of which, however, the third 

 the Catalonian has not come down to us; and we 

 may confine ourselves, therefore, at present, to the 

 consideration of the Castilian. Every romance 

 language is a mixture of Germanic languages with 

 the Latin, and each of them received a peculiar 

 character from the nature of the country and of the 

 conquering tribes, from political relations and other 

 circumstances. The dialect of Spain became deep- 

 ly imbued with the Oriental element, in conse- 

 quence of the influence of the Moors, who were 

 much more cultivated than the conquered people. 

 The Castilian idiom originated in the mountains of 

 the interior of Spain, and, like that of the Doric 

 mountaineers among the Greeks, was characterized 

 by deep and open tones, which now distinguish the 

 Spanish from the Portuguese. The latter we may 

 compare to the Ionic dialect in the Greek language. 

 The Spanish abounds in full-sounding vowels, and 

 every discourse is filled with assonances. Its 

 rhyme is the most natural and most perfect to be 

 found in the modern European languages. The 

 Spanish gutturals indicate, perhaps, the Teutonic 

 and Moorish elements. The language is peculiarly 

 fitted to express the dignified and the pathetic. 

 Not unfrequently its solemn dignity seduces the 

 Spaniard into bombast. The poetry, the fine arts and 

 general literature of a nation bear the stamp of its pe- 

 culiarities. Few are the nations among whom these 

 have flourished equally. The Spanish people is deci- 

 dedly poetical. In works of eloquence, both religious 

 and secular, no language is so poor as the Spanish, 

 though, in some respects, finely adapted for them. 

 As to architecture, Spain may, perhaps, have exer- 

 cised an important influence, in consequence of the 

 contact into which the Moorish and Gothic archi- 

 tecture were brought in this country. Gothic 

 architecture, indeed, has sprung from the whole 

 spirit of the modern Christian nations, and belongs 

 much more to Germany than to Spain, Italy, and 

 England ; but it is very probable that what is 

 called the new Gothic architecture developed itself 

 with more beauty and grace in the neighbourhood 

 of the light, splendid, and rich architecture of the 

 Moors. The innumerable churches of Spain are in 

 the Gothic taste, like the old buildings of Germany 

 and England ; and among them are many fine edi- 

 fices, but not to be compared with the minster of 

 Strasburg, St Stephen's church at Vienna, or West- 

 minster abbey. One of the most remarkable 

 monuments of Spanish architecture and Spanish 

 greatness is the famous Escurial. 



Music, dancing, and painting could not be 

 wanting in so poetical a nation. Music was used 

 to accompany their songs and ballads, and every 

 shepherd still knows how to play on his instrument. 

 The dance, so natural to southern nations, acquired 

 a national character in Spain, and, to this day, the 

 Spaniard has many an almost allegorical dance, 

 borrowed from the Moors. Painting and sculpture 

 were used to ornament the churches (Seville, 

 Toledo) and palaces. Madrid has even a"n Acade- 

 mia de las tres nobles artes, pintura, escultura y 

 architectura, and the royal palace of that city and 

 the Escurial have galleries ; but there is no proper 

 Spanish school of reputation in either of these arts. 

 Yet we cannot pass by the names of the painters 



Velasquez, Murillo, Zusbaran, L. de Vargas. The 

 art of dramatic representation never reached a high 

 degree of perfection in Spain. We therefore pro- 

 ceed to the poetry. In general, it may be observed 

 that the spirit of the Spanish poetry is found, like- 

 wise, in the Portuguese. Both are the -epresenta- 

 tives of a peculiar species of romantic poetry. The 

 time when Spanish poetry began to flourish coin- 

 cides with the origin of the Italian epic, being just 

 at the period when the Provencal poetry expired, 

 in the middle of the fourteenth century. If we 

 consider the time of the Troubadours as the infancy 

 of the modern poetry of Southern Europe, the 

 Spanish poetry, and the Italian, which begins with 

 Dante, form the adult age. The age of the 

 Proven9al poetry could not last long in Spain. 

 The life of the Spaniard, filled with battle and toil, 

 was too grave to allow him to be satisfied with 

 poetry of so gay, and often trifling a character. 

 Only at the court of Arragon, and for a short time 

 at that of the king of Castile, there were courts of 

 love and wandering minstrels. The more Castile 

 extended its power from the centre of Spain, the 

 more did the Proven9al poetry retire from Arra- 

 gon, Catalonia, and Valencia, to France. Castilian 

 poetry began with the ballad, passed over to the 

 romance, and reached its highest point in the drama, 

 and in each of these departments always remained 

 of a decidedly romantic character. Spanish poetry 

 differs from the Italian by a peculiar mixture of 

 romantic fervour, frequently of an Oriental kind, 

 with deep gravity. The Moors may have added to 

 this spirit, besides having introduced into Spanish 

 fiction the fairy world of the East. Spanish poetry 

 proceeds always with a solemn pace. Its plays of 

 wit are heavy, and its fondness for allegory exces- 

 sive. The perfection of the intrigue is one of the 

 great merits of Spanish writers, and they have 

 served as models to the rest of Europe. A great 

 peculiarity of Spanish versification is found in the 

 redondillas, which became not only the standing 

 metre of the ballad, but also of the drama, and in 

 the assonances, which the Spaniards carried to the 

 highest perfection. Redondillas, in their later 

 form, are strophes of four lines in trochaic verses, 

 mostly of four feet, and are peculiarly adapted for 

 Spanish poetry. In the Spanish* sonnets, prior to 

 the connexion with Italy, they assumed the most 

 popular character. The rhyme alone did not satisfy 

 the writers, but the assonance was carried through 

 whole lines. The song was the natural growth of 

 the warlike period of Spain, and served to com- 

 memorate martial exploits. No language has such 

 a store of ballads as the Spanish; but they are, 

 particularly the earlier ones, little more than simple, 

 childlike relations of chivalrous deeds. They may 

 be properly divided into the chivalrous (derived 

 especially from tiie fabulous history of Charlemagne, 

 in which are mingled also tales of Moorish and 

 Spanish heroes as don Gayferos, the Moorish 

 Calaynos, count Alarcos, &c.) and the historical: 

 of the latter kind, an endless number originated 

 during the struggle with the Moors. After those 

 which belong to the early times of these conflicts, 

 in the ninth and tenth centuries, there arose the 

 brilliant ballads relating to the Cid, the hero of the 

 first Castilian king, Ferdinand. Their nature is 

 fully exhibited to us in probably the earliest poem 

 of length relating to this subject which has been 

 preserved, El Poema de Cid a story whose sim- 

 plicity and poetic colouring are very striking. It 

 is nothing more, and, in this early childhood of 



