15th-Century Spanish Literature: An Overview
Old Romances
Short epic-lyrical compositions arose from the fragmentation of the chanson de geste. Another view is that ballads are creations of a single individual, as the oldest samples are lyrical and romantic, not epic.
Evolution and Transmission of Romance
The first manifestations were transmitted orally during the 15th century. Along the 16th century, authors included them in worship and songbooks. In the second half of the 17th century, the romance started to decline and took refuge in villages.
Romance Themes
- Historico-nationals: These come from old Castilian epics, exalting their romantic and lyrical heroes.
- Popular Romances
- Frontier Romances: Created by imagination, these depict episodes on the border with the Moorish kingdoms. The first protagonist is a Christian, the second a Muslim.
- Carolingian Romances: Focusing on Charlemagne and related characters and events.
- Breton Romances: Inspired by the legend of King Arthur and the Round Table.
Metrics
The structure is closely related to the chanson de geste. In its final stage, it tended towards 16-syllable verses divided into two hemistichs of 8. Each verse was recited independently, so that the odd verses became free and the pairs assonant. The romance is a composition with an indefinite series of eight-syllable lines, rhyming in assonance in pairs, and the odd lines loose.
Style
Along with linguistic features of epic oral language and formulas inherited from the chanson de geste, there are stylistic peculiarities:
- Fragmentary Trend: The romance is limited to the essentials.
- Tendency to Repeat: Sometimes phonemes, words, phrases, and structures are repeated.
- Temporal Liberty: Verbal usages include imperfect subjunctive, preterite, and conditional instead of future, and imperfect indicative instead of present.
Jorge Manrique’s Verses
Structure:
- Exordio (1-3 (4.Invocación)): Contempt of the world (mundi contemptu), transience of life, equal branches of death.
- Sermon (5-24): General reflections on life, death, and power. Parade of illustrious dead (Ubi Sunt).
- Epicedium (25-40): Song about the loved one. Praise of the father (panegyric). Arrival and acceptance of death.
Metrics
Manrique employs the copla: 12 poems grouped into two sextuplets with a broken foot. Eight-syllable verses, except the third and sixth, which are tetrasyllabic. Rhyme scheme: ABCABC / DEFDEF.
15th-Century Literary Trends
Epics and poems of the Mester de Clerecía disappear. Old ballads revitalize and enrich the epic. Courtly lyric develops among the educated and stimulates interest in folk songs. Theatrical activity reappears. Historical and didactic prose is encouraged. New trends from Italy are acclimatized.
Educated Lyric: The Poetry of Cancionero
Diverse thematic compositions, including love, moral reflection, and satire.
Love Poetry
Following the Provençal style, 15th-century Castilian love poetry blends Provençal tradition, dolce stil novo, and echoes of Petrarch and Ausias March. The concept of love is consistent with Provençal tradition.
Satire
The anarchy of Henry IV’s reign fostered satirical poetry:
- Social Satire: Characterized by ritual, democracy, and macabre imagery.
- Political Satire: Critique of the court.
Jorge Manrique
His most representative work is the Coplas por la muerte de su padre, a moral-didactic poem extolling his father.
Style
Manrique avoids the Latinate style of Juan de Mena, using a refined, almost Renaissance language.
Themes
- The world as a place of transit.
- Fortune as blind chance.
- Time as fleeting.
- Death and the ubi sunt theme.
- Fame enduring after death.
La Celestina
Published in Burgos in 1499, with 21 acts, written by Fernando de Rojas. The first act is believed to be by an unknown author.
Action
Prologue and two parts. Calisto pursues a falcon into Melibea’s garden and falls in love. Rejected, he hires Celestina, who, with Calisto’s servants, secures Melibea’s surrender. Celestina’s greed leads to her murder. The lovers die tragically.
Themes
- Love as uncontrollable passion.
- Greed.
- Fortune.
- Magic.
- Time.
- Death.
Social World
of La Celestina: It is palpable the transformation of medieval society, is seen in: the establishment of new relationships between the various levels. Also do be seen in the configuration of a new moral code