A Literary Journey Through Medieval and Renaissance Spain
ITEM 12: An Estate Society
In the early centuries of the Middle Ages, a feudal system was imposed in which kings held limited power. Society was divided into three tiers:
- The oratores (“those who pray”), representing the clergy.
- The bellatores (“warriors”), comprising the nobility.
- The laboratores (“those who work”), constituting the third estate or commoners, which encompassed the rest of the population.
ITEM 13: Poetry of the 13th and 14th Centuries: Mester de Clerecía
Mester de Clerecía refers to a collection of narrative poems with didactic intentions and religious themes. These poems utilized a stanza of four lines of 14 syllables (Alexandrine) with a strong central caesura, rhyming consonantly.
5.1. Gonzalo de Berceo
Gonzalo de Berceo is the first known author of Castilian literature. He dedicated his life to serving the monastery of San Millán de la Cogolla, where he held administrative positions.
Berceo’s Works
Berceo’s most prominent work is Miracles of Our Lady, a collection of short stories featuring various characters devoted to the Virgin Mary. These characters are saved from the torments of hell through supernatural intervention. The book comprises 25 miracles performed by the Virgin, each preceded by an allegorical introduction. Each miracle follows a structure where a character with significant flaws, yet devoted to the Virgin, faces disgrace and is ultimately saved by her.
Góngora Style
Berceo presents himself as a minstrel and employs simple language, although he incorporates numerous words of Latin origin.
5.2. The Book of Good Love
The Book of Good Love is a miscellany of stories. Its author is Juan Ruiz, Archpriest of Hita.
Matter and Structure
The central theme of the work is a series of love affairs narrated in the first person. This narrative thread interweaves with several autobiographical and lyrical episodes, forming a lengthy poem of nearly 2,000 verses. Two main elements stand out: the love affair between Don Melon and Doña Endrina, involving the old Trotaconventos, and the allegorical battle between Don Carnal and Doña Cuaresma.
Intention and Style
The themes of love and deception permeate the work. It remains unclear whether the work is primarily didactic or intended for entertainment. Ruiz employs rich and often picturesque language, ranging from the reverent to the colloquial style of the time.
El Cantar de Mio Cid
This epic poem recounts the exploits of Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, a historical figure born in Toledo in 1043. The poem consists of 3,700 verses grouped into monorhythmic series called tiradas. The verses vary in syllable count and are divided into two hemistichs by a strong pause or caesura. The rhyme scheme is assonant.
Matter and Structure
The poem is divided into three parts or cantares:
- Cantar del Destierro (Song of Exile): The Cid is exiled by King Alfonso VI of Castile and seeks refuge in Moorish lands. He undertakes a series of raids that bring him and his retinue great wealth, which he uses to regain the king’s favor.
- Cantar de las Bodas (Song of the Weddings): The Cid conquers Valencia and earns the king’s pardon. The king arranges the marriages of Doña Elvira and Doña Sol, the Cid’s daughters, to the heirs of Carrión, despite the Cid’s suspicions about the suitors. He agrees out of loyalty to the monarch.
- Cantar de la Afrenta de Corpes (Song of the Outrage of Corpes): The heirs of Carrión display cowardice on multiple occasions, earning the scorn of the Cid’s men. Offended, they abandon Valencia with their wives. On their journey, they stop in an oak forest where they beat and abandon the two women in revenge. The Cid appeals to the king for justice, leading to a trial in Toledo. The infants are judged and condemned, ultimately defeated in a duel. The poem concludes with the announcement of new marriages for Doña Elvira and Doña Sol to the sons of the kings of Aragon and Navarre.
The central theme of the Cantar is the restoration of honor. Exile represents the loss of public honor, which the Cid recovers through the conquest of Valencia. The humiliation and abandonment of his daughters lead to the loss of his private honor, which is restored through their eventual marriages to the sons of kings.
Literary Style and Language
The style is characterized by its realism. The language features several fixed formulas (repeated phrases). These formulas include epic epithets, which identify characters by a defining quality.
ITEM 14: Don Juan Manuel and Count Lucanor
Don Juan Manuel is the most important Castilian prose writer of the 14th century.
Works of Don Juan Manuel
His most significant works include The Book of the Knight and the Squire, in which a knight instructs a young squire on various aspects of life; The Book of the Estates, concerning the conversion of a pagan king and prince to Christianity; and, most notably, Count Lucanor. These works offer a rich tapestry of knowledge, ideas, values, and ways of life prevalent in the first half of the 14th century.
Count Lucanor: A Collection of Exempla
Count Lucanor combines education and entertainment. The author aims to reach a wide audience through the use of fictional narratives. The work consists of 51 stories, complemented by a collection of proverbs and a treatise on the salvation of the soul. Each exemplum provides models and patterns of behavior that can enhance a person’s moral standing or improve their material wealth. The stories address diverse issues, but all share a common concern: how to maintain and enhance honor and financial stability.
Structure of the Story
All stories follow a fixed structure consisting of four parts:
- Initial dialogue: Count Lucanor presents a problem to his counselor, Patronio. This sets the context for the story.
- Narration of the story or exemplum by Patronio.
- Application of the story to the Count’s real-life situation and his acceptance of the advice.
- Intervention of Don Juan Manuel, who decided to include the exemplum in the book, along with a moral.
ITEM 17: Garcilaso de la Vega
Garcilaso embodies the ideal Renaissance man.
Although his body of work is small, it encompasses almost all genres and themes of the later literary tradition. Love is the constant theme of his poetry.
Sonnets and Songs
Garcilaso’s sonnets and songs are characterized by their brevity and explore the experience of love, often causing pain and melancholy for the lover. His poems can be divided into two groups: those written before 1533 and those written after.
The Eclogues
Garcilaso composed three eclogues:
- Eclogue II: A typical example of the genre, narrating the unhappy love of the shepherdess Camila and Albanio, who are comforted by Salicio and Nemoroso.
- Eclogue I: Written in stanzas, this eclogue is divided into two parts. In the first, the shepherd Salicio laments his love for Galatea, who has left him to marry another shepherd. In the second part, the shepherd Nemoroso mourns the death of Elisa. This eclogue showcases the fusion of Petrarchan conventions with the emerging sentimentality of the Renaissance.
- Eclogue III: Composed in octaves, this poem describes how four nymphs of the Tagus River gather in a peaceful and shady meadow to weave four tapestries. The poem concludes with the singing of two shepherds, Tirreno and Alcino, who express their romantic feelings.
ITEM 18: Lazarillo de Tormes
Lazarillo de Tormes, dating from 1554, is a short novel that marks the beginning of the modern novel. It is a plausible and realistic account in which the protagonist’s character is shaped by the world around him.
Realistic Fiction
The author aimed to push fictional narrative to the limits of plausibility. The work is presented as an autobiography, with Lázaro de Tormes narrating his own life in a humble and colloquial style befitting his social status.
Lázaro is an outcast, a child forced to navigate a harsh and unforgiving society alone. For the first time in fictional narrative, the educational process of a child significantly shapes the character of the adult he becomes.
Structure
The book is divided into seven chapters and a prologue or treatise that connects to the work’s ending, which becomes clear only after a thorough reading.
The first three chapters, the longest in the book, follow the conventions of the picaresque novel. Hunger serves as the main thread. From the fourth chapter onward, the author employs a structure of interconnected stories, like beads on a string. The order of the episodes is not crucial, and the narrative could theoretically continue indefinitely.
Sequels to Lazarillo
One notable sequel to Lazarillo de Tormes is Guzmán de Alfarache by Mateo Alemán.