The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-07-24
SPANS PLACE IN LETTERS.
Not a Famous Book In o Years IL Can
Call Its Own.

~ 4
The ~backwardness Of Spain In all
things save cruelty find a luminous ex-
ample in the practically total absence or
Spanish names from the literature or
the world. Who but a specialist can
mentor more than one world-famous
Spanish author? Who are SPANS epic.
dramatic, narrative and lyric poets?
who are her historians. her critics. her
novelists? Who are her scientific au-
thors 0eaving out the Arabs). her phil
osophers, her essayist? In the 10th cen
fury, out of the thin soil OF mediocrity
in letters which neither gods nor men
can tolerate-sprang the immortal Ger
vantes, the only writer that Spain has
produced who can be at all compared
with the literary geniuses of other peo-
Piles. Don Quixote' was the recon OF a
genuinely worthy and ambitious intel
lect from the literary trash the best wits
of Spain could manufacture up to that
time. This satire in the commonplace
chivalric novel than in vogue has never
been even approached in its style by any
Spaniard. ancient or modern. 1t has its
place high up in the temple of fame,
admired and loved by learned and I'M
learned alike-in a word. the elements
Of all that is good In letters.
But aside from Cervantes. Spain has
no place in literature comparable with
that of any OF the great nations of the
Aryan or Semitic races. "Amandis de
Gaul," generally accredited to spain.
and standing out as a true original-the
first and one of the best romances con-
structed of the material of chivalry-was
not written by a Spaniard, but by Vasco
de Lobeira, a Portuguese. 1t was trans
lated into Spanish in the beginning of
the 10th century. This work cannot by
the widest stretch of generosity be given
to Spain. 1t Is Portuguese, and prob
ably lives In its Spanish dress because
the original IL lost. Had Spain pro-
duced "Amadis de Gaul' and The
Lusiad." these, with Don Quixote." had
saved her. But Camoens was Portu-
guese n Luistania is not Spanish.
There is, it is true, The Poem of the
Cid" one of the Homeric narrative-epics
Of the middle ages. and IL Spain has an
epic IL Is that. But measured with the
performances of other nations this mar
rative represents the beginning of a
literature without it's development. THE
Poem of the CID" is strongly national,
and deserved better than a single manu-
script to preserve It. Take from Spain
this ancient and simple piece and the
Don Quixote" of C~ervantes, and what
has she left so far as the world at large
is concerned?
A glance at SPANS best writer's
poets. prose writers and dramatists-
will bring forward names that are strik-
ingly unfamiliar to eyes accustomed TO
the great names OF England. France,
:. Germany, Italy and even Russia. Her
best lyric poets are Fernando de Her
rera and Fray Luis de Leon, both of
whom were dead before the beginning
: the 18th century. Herrera is Of interest
only to the deep student of letters and
their growth. Luis de Leon Is a religi-
j, Gus poet, and is accounted the most
, masterful of the Spanish Wrists. The
. other lyric poets OF Spain-veTy few in
, number as compared with those of al
- 81 -.lA. e l.
!, Europe-are entirely third or fourth
/ rate. The first Spanish historian was
Geronimo Zurita, a CerYanteF in his
. way, who came as a relief from the SUI
: perstitious and childish crudities of the
chroniclers.
? Following Cervantes arose the first OF
Y the dramatists Spain produced. He was
. Lope de Vega. to whom is given the sole
credit for lifting the Spanish drama in.
TO a position of dignity in any manner
/ worthy the word. He defined the drama
i'm Spain and gave il is modes. He wa!
Z contemporaneous with the Elizabethar
dramatists. 1t had been marvellous. in.
i deed. If Spain had escaped the grea.
Y movement that reformed the ~literatur,
of France. England and Germany a
. that time, but Lope de Vegas works arr
q sorry as compared Wit those OF tn,
Elizabethans. with the fruit Of the re
n~afssance. with the strong pulses q
= 'ADsShN tAANh 'AAN lit iSuIoBt VI III
time.
e Lope de Vega wrote. It IL said. 1.s0
. plays and 400 other works. OF these
r several were epics now wholly forgot
ten. His dramas lacked finish quite
d The unities were unknown to him. TIL,
entire mass of his work. gagged b,
. standards Of criticism other than Span
: ish. was weak. even coarse. This poe
II was the very crest Of a long wave o
poetry that rolled over Spain. long bu
3 not deep; and even Lope de Vega. tn
h only one that can now be recalled. /
IL remembered only by the historian. TIL
;. hordes of poets that lived with hir
" rose no higher than the pun Of the vul
9 gar metaphor. The best they coul
; do was to call their enemies-the En
n glish, as now the Americans-pigs. A
J. that time the poets of Spain turned gu
n epics by the thousand. Ercilla v Zuni
d ga attempted the epic in his "Arau
cana" and proved that he had not We
p understood the very essentials of cpl
poetry. Cristoval de Virtues was
- Spanish drsmatist who might hav
lived as a writer OF tragedies had tn
Spanish people been English or German
= And critics have II that his "Semiran
n is" and ~"Cassandra" are truly mob
tragedies. Late in the age came Cald
M eron de la Barca. who marked the linn
OF Spain's best effort IN the drama. II
NJ brought Spanish literature to the b
o ginning of the eighteenth century.
= For 200 years Spain has wallowed
he barbarism OF a nation without
book II can call its own. With u
dawn OF the eighteenth century Frenc
fs Italian and English ideas overran II
peninsula. with the result that n
a healthy growth of national expressic
or and o~rigination was killed. The nam,
of modern Spanish writers are unknoN
an to English readers. In this time. VIII,
Hungarian. Polish and Russian write
n, find a liberal and appreciative public
England and America: when Persia
Arabic and Hindu poets lack no tran
lators: when Norwegian authors ha
enthusiastic admirers in English al
American cities. Snain has not a sing