The age-herald., 1898-05-27
STAINS PLACE
 IN LITERATURE
From the Chicago TImes-Herald.

eho practically total absence of Spanish names from the literature of the world. Who but specialist can mention mora than one world-famous Spanish author? Who are Spain's epic. dramatic, narrative and lyric poets? Who are her historians, her critics, her nove,ists? Who are her scientific authors 0eaving out the Arabs), her philosophers, her essaylsts? In the six teenth century, out of the thin soil of medi- ocrity-mediocrity in letters which neither gods nor men can tolerate-sprang the im- mortal Cervantes, the only writer that Spain has produced who can be at all compared with the literary geniuses of other peoples. "Don Quixote" was the re- coil of genuinely worthy and ambit ous intellect from the literary trash the best wits of Spain could manufacture up to that time. The satire on the commonp' ace chivalric novel then in vogue has never been even approached in it's style by any Spaniard, ancient or modern. It has its place high up in the temple of fame, ap- pealing to all hearts and all heads. ad- mired and loved by learned and unlearned alike-in 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. "Amadis de Gaul," general ly accredited to Spain, and standing out as true original-the first and one of the best romances constructed of the material of chivalry-was not written by a Spaniard, but by Vasco de Lobeira, Portuguese. It was translated into Spanish in the begin ming of the sixteenth century. This work cannot by the widest stretch of generosity be given to Spain. It is Portuguese, and probably lives in its Spanish dress because the original is lost. Had Spain produced "Amadis de Gaul" and "The Lus,ad," these, with Don Quixote" would have saved her. But Camoens was Portuguese and Luistania is not Spanish. There is, 1t is true. "The Poem of the Cid,' one of the Homeric narrative-epics of the middle ages, and if Spain has an epic it is that. But measured with the performances of other nations this narrative represents the beginning of a literature without it's de- velopment. "The Poem of the cid' is strongly national, and deserved better than a single manuscript to preserve 1t. Take from Spain this ancient and S smple piece and the Don Quixote' of Cervantes and what has she left so far as the world at large IS concerned!
 A glance at Spain's best writers-poets, prose writers and dramatists-will bring forward names that are strikingly unfa- miliar to eyes accustomed to the great names of England, France, Germany, Italy and even Russia Her best lyric poets are Fernando de Herrera and Fray Luis de Leon, both of whom were dead before the beginning of the seventeenth century, Her. rera is of interest only to the deep student of letters and their growth. Luis de. Leon is religious poet, and is accounted the most masterful of the Spanish lyrists. The other lyric poets of Spain-very few in number as compared with those of almost any other nation of importance in Europe are entirely third or fourth rate. The first Spanish historian was Geronimo Zurita, Cervantes in his way. who came as relief from the supersttious and childish crudl- ties of the chroncers.
 Following Cervantes arose the first of the dramatists Spain produced. He was Lope de Vega, to whom is given the sole credit for lifting the Spanish drama into posi- ton of dignity in any manner worthy the word. He defined the drama in Spain and gave it it's modes. He was contempo- raneous, indeed, if Spain had escaped the great movement that reformed the litera- ture of France, England and Germany at that time but Pope de Vegas works are sorry as compared with those of the Eliza bethans, with the fruit of the renaissance, with the strong pulses of thought that stirred the Europe of his time.
 Lope de Vega wrote is is said, 800 plays
 n 4l.<.~A vol epics now wholly forgotten. His dramas lacked finish quite. The unites were un- Known to him. The entire mass of his work, gauged by standards of criticism other than Spanish, was weak, evenScoarse. This poet was the very crest of a long wave of poetry that rolled over Spain, long but not deep; and even Leon de Vega, the only one that can now be recalled, Is remember only by the historian. The hordes or poets that lived with him rose no higher than the pun or the vulgar metaphor. Ine best they could do was to call their ene- mies-the English, as now the Americans pigs At that time the poets of Spain turned out .ep.cs by the thousand Erci Ia Z V Zuniga attempted the epic in his 'Arau- cana" and proved that he had not yet un- derstood the very essentials of epic poetry. Cristoval de Virues was Spanish dramat- ist who might have lived as writer or tragedies had the Spanish people been Eng fish or German. And critics have 1t tEat
 
 .trulv noble tragedies Late in the age came Calderon de la Barca. who marked the limit of Spain's best effort in the drama He brought Spanish literature to inc beginning of the eighteenth century.
 
 For 200 years Spain has widowed in the barbarism of nation without book 1t can call its own. With the dawn of the eight eenth century French, Italian and E7giisn ideas overrun the peninsula with the result x.rfh af aX- pression and origlnation was killed. Ire names of modern Spanish writers are @ un- known to Erg ish readers Tn tnis ,lme, nbon Hungarian, Polish and Russian writers find a liberal and appreciat've pnb- lie in England and America; when Persian Arab,c and Hindu poets lack no transia- -tors. ewhen Norwegian authors have enthu- siastic % admirers in English and American cities Spain has not single writer whose nose tro.- phts anpea' to the Fngli h. peaVing rer-d srain's n.era glory s Ike her military glory--chiey spang es; lha,,t Her ia hy |, u'e i' .s~,,fo- cause that has wrought