Medieval Spanish Literature: Society, Poetry, and Prose
Medieval Spanish Literature
12. Estate Society
In the early centuries of the Middle Ages, a feudal system was imposed in which kings had limited power. Society was divided into three tiers:
- The oratores (“those who pray”), i.e., the clergy.
- The bellatores (“warriors”), comprising the nobility.
- The laboratores (“those who work”), also called the third estate or commoners, which included the rest of the population.
13. Poetry in the 13th and 14th Centuries: Mester de Clerecía
The Mester de Clerecía is a collection of narrative poems with didactic intent and religious themes. These poems are characterized by a stanza of four Alexandrine verses (14 syllables) with a strong central caesura, rhyming consonantly.
13.1. Gonzalo de Berceo
Gonzalo de Berceo is the first known Castilian author. He served at the monastery of San Millán de la Cogolla, where he performed administrative tasks.
Berceo’s Work:
His most prominent work is the Miracles of Our Lady, a collection of short stories featuring characters devoted to the Virgin Mary who are saved from hell through supernatural intervention. The book comprises 25 miracles, each preceded by an allegorical introduction. Each miracle features a flawed character who is nonetheless devoted to the Virgin. This character faces disgrace, but the Virgin ultimately saves them.
Góngora Style: Berceo presents himself as a minstrel and adopts simple language, but incorporates many Latin words.
13.2. The Book of Good Love
This is a miscellany written by Juan Ruiz, Archpriest of Hita.
Subject Matter and Structure: The theme is a series of love affairs told in the first person. It interweaves autobiographical, narrative, and lyrical episodes into a long poem of nearly 2,000 verses. Two key elements are the love affair between Don Melon and Doña Endrina, facilitated by the old Trotaconventos, and the allegorical battle between Don Carnal and Doña Cuaresma.
Intention and Style: The themes are love and deception. It is unclear whether the work is didactic or merely entertaining. It employs rich and sometimes picturesque language, ranging from the cultivated to the colloquial style of the time.
13.3. 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 have irregular syllable counts and are divided into two hemistichs by a strong caesura. The rhyme scheme is assonance.
Subject Matter and Structure: It consists of three parts or cantares:
- Cantar del Destierro (Song of Exile): The Cid is banished by King Alfonso VI of Castile and goes to Moorish lands. He conducts raids that earn him and his retinue profits, which he uses to regain the king’s favor.
- Cantar de las Bodas (Song of the Weddings): The Cid conquers Valencia and receives the king’s pardon. The king arranges the marriage of the Cid’s daughters, Doña Elvira and Doña Sol, to the heirs of Carrión, despite the Cid’s suspicions.
- Cantar de la Afrenta de Corpes (Song of the Outrage of Corpes): The heirs of Carrión display cowardice and are scorned by the Cid’s men. Offended, they leave Valencia with their wives. They abuse their wives in an oak forest and abandon them. The Cid appeals to the king for justice, leading to a trial in Toledo. The heirs are condemned and defeated in a duel. The poem concludes with the announcement of the daughters’ new marriages to the sons of the kings of Aragon and Navarre.
The central theme is the recovery of honor. Exile represents the loss of public honor, which is regained through the conquest of Valencia. The humiliation of his daughters leads to the loss of his private honor, which is restored through their new marriages to royalty.
Literary Style and Language: The style is characterized by its realism. The language uses fixed formulas, including epic epithets that identify characters by their qualities.
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 important works include the Book of the Knight and Squire, in which a knight instructs a young squire on various aspects of life; the Book of the States, about the conversion of a pagan king and prince to Christianity; and, most importantly, Count Lucanor. These works offer a mosaic of knowledge, ideas, values, and lifestyles of the early 14th century.
Count Lucanor is a collection of 51 exemplary tales, combined with proverbs and a treatise on the salvation of the soul. Each example provides models of behavior that can enhance one’s moral standing or improve their estate. The stories cover diverse topics but share a common concern: how to maintain and enhance honor and finances.
Structure of the Stories: Each story follows a fixed structure:
- Initial dialogue between Count Lucanor and his advisor, Patronio, in which the Count presents his problem.
- Patronio narrates a story or example.
- Patronio applies the story to the Count’s situation, and the Count accepts the advice.
- Don Juan Manuel intervenes, explaining why he included the example in the book and providing a moral.
17. Garcilaso de la Vega
Garcilaso represents the ideal Renaissance man. His work is brief but encompasses almost all genres and themes of the later tradition. Love is the constant theme of his lyrics.
Sonnets and Songs: These poems express the pain and melancholy caused by love. They can be divided into two groups: those written before 1533 and those after.
Eclogues: Garcilaso composed three eclogues:
- Eclogue II: A typical example, recounting the unhappy love of the shepherdesses Camila and Albania, who are comforted by Salicio and Nemoroso.
- Eclogue I: Written in stanzas, it is divided into two parts. In the first, the shepherd Salicio laments his love for Galatea, who has married another shepherd. In the second, the shepherd Nemoroso mourns the death of Elisa. This eclogue showcases Petrarchan influence within a new Renaissance sensibility.
- Eclogue III: Composed in octaves, it tells how four nymphs of the Tagus River go to a peaceful meadow to embroider four stories. The poem ends with the singing of two shepherds, Tirreno and Alcino, who express their romantic feelings.
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 account with a realistic tone, in which the protagonist’s character is shaped by his environment.
Realistic Fiction: The author aimed for narrative plausibility, leaving the work unsigned and giving voice to the character. Lázaro de Tormes writes his own life story in a humble style befitting his social status.
Lázaro is an outcast, a child forced to survive alone in a harsh society. For the first time in fictional narrative, a child’s upbringing shapes his character as an adult.
Structure: The book is divided into seven chapters and a prologue that connects to the work’s ending, which is understood only after a thorough reading.
The first three chapters, the longest, follow the lines of a folktale. Hunger is the central theme. From the fourth chapter onward, the author uses a string-of-beads narrative structure, where the order of episodes is less important and could theoretically continue indefinitely.
Sequel to Lazarillo: Guzmán de Alfarache by Mateo Alemán.