Spanish Literature of the 15th Century: Pre-Renaissance & Early Novel
Pre-Renaissance Mentality
During the Pre-Renaissance period, man rediscovered faith in himself and realized his individuality. Encouraged by pagan and materialistic ideals, he believed that life offered many pleasures to be enjoyed.
Genres
Epic poems faded, replaced by old ballads. Under the influence of the court, opera flourished among the educated, sparking interest in carols. Theatrical activity also experienced a strong resurgence.
Old Ballads
These short, lyrical compositions emerged from the fragmentation of ancient epic poems.
Evolution and Transmission
Ballads were transmitted orally during the 15th century. Cultured authors collected and compiled them into songbooks and Romanceros. New ballads were also composed by renowned figures like Cervantes, Quevedo, and Góngora.
Themes
- Historico-national: Derived from old Castilian epic poems, these ballads exalted their heroes.
- Romantic and lyrical: Created by popular imagination.
- Border and Moriscos: Recounted war episodes occurring on the border between Moorish and Christian kingdoms.
- Carolingians: Focused on the figure of Charlemagne.
- Bretones: Inspired by the legend of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table.
Metrics
Eight-syllable verses with assonant rhyme, leaving the odd couplets loose.
Style
- Fragmentary: The ballad adhered to the essential, capturing the most important aspects of the story.
- Repetitive.
- Chaotic use of tenses.
The Cultured Lyric: Cancionero Poetry
This term refers to song compositions with diverse themes, created by poets associated with the court.
Love Poetry
Influences
- Ausiàs March
- Jordi de Sant Jordi
Identifying Features
- Abundance of personifications and allegories of ideas.
- Isolation of emotions.
- Love as service.
- Elusive attitude of the lady.
- Poet’s distress in her presence.
- Joyful suffering (masochistic vision of love).
- Death wish as a source of liberation.
- Fondness for conceptual games, antithesis, and paradox.
Authors
- Marqués de Santillana
- Juan de Mena
- Jorge Manrique
Moral Reflection: The Verses of Jorge Manrique
This moral-didactic poem commemorates the author’s father after his death.
Metrics
Copla Manriqueña: Eight-syllable verses, except for the 3rd and 6th, which are tetrasyllabic. The rhyme is consonant and follows the pattern: abcabc, defdef.
Structure
The poem is divided into three parts:
- Doctrinal: Expresses general thoughts about the transience of life and the inconsistency of worldly goods (wealth, time, and death).
- Examples: Provides examples of historical figures who fell victim to these three agents.
- Commendation: Praises the deceased and his encounter with death.
Topics
- The world as a place of transit.
- Contempt for the world.
- Contempt for wealth and power due to their transient and misleading nature.
- Fortune.
- Fleeting time (tempus fugit): Time flies, emphasizing the past for medieval man.
- Death as an equalizing power: Manrique presents a less terrifying view of death and believes it should be accepted with serenity as a path to liberation and eternity.
- Ubi sunt: Questions the fate of recently deceased figures, with silence as the answer.
- Fame as a means to perpetuate the memory of the dead, offering triumph over death, consolation for the living, and achieved through a virtuous and Christian life.
Style
Refined language, avoiding excessive ornamentation, hyperbaton, and unnecessary adjectives.
The Novel and Sentimental Love
The 15th-century novel was infused with sentimental love, influenced by Boccaccio’s Italian novel. Two genres emerged: the novel recreating national historical events and the sentimental novel, which delved into the analysis of lovers’ feelings.
La Celestina
Published in Burgos in 1499, this work consists of 21 acts written by Fernando de Rojas.
Action
The dramatic action is divided into a prologue and two parts. The first part extends to Act XIV, and the second from Act XV to XXI.
Characters
- Calisto: Dominated by passionate love, he oscillates between retraction and melancholy, excitement and anger.
- Melibea: Initially rejects the young gallant’s advances but eventually succumbs to him.
- Celestina: The intermediary in Calisto and Melibea’s love affair, she has become the prototype of the bawd, driven solely by the pursuit of wealth.
- Sempronio and Pármeno: Calisto’s servants.
- Pleberio: Melibea’s father.
Language
A blend of formal and colloquial language, adapted by the characters to suit the situation.
Plot Summary
A young man named Calisto falls madly in love with Melibea. She rejects him, and under the influence of his servant, Calisto seeks the help of a matchmaker, Celestina, a woman involved in prostitution, to woo her. Calisto provides Celestina with a potion to make Melibea fall in love with him. As planned, Melibea becomes completely devoted to Calisto. One night, they decide to be together. Calisto dies, and a heartbroken Melibea commits suicide, despite her father’s attempts to intervene.