little more of his work was known) by such notable men, and during so long a period, he never seems to have exercised any fundamental influence on Spanish literature at all. It is easy enough to account for this by showing how entirely unlike were his character and genius to those of Spain. It is not my intention here to labour this point. Rather I aim in this article at setting out the facts, as a brief and minor contribution to the study of foreign influences in Spanish literature of modern times. I Menéndez y Pelayo, in his Ideas Estéticas, gives Milton perhaps too exalted a position in Spain when he says: "De los poetas clásicos ingleses anteriores al siglo XVIII, sólo Milton era conocido y admirado y aun traducido, aunque generalmente por fragmentos." To verify or refute his statement, we must know what precisely he understands by clásicos, and to what precise dates he refers: both these points are uncertain. Nor can we be certain who first made Milton known in Spain. Long biblical poems were in fashion in eighteenth-century Spain, and Paradise Lost may well have been known long before we suspect. 'Menéndez y Pelayo, it is true, writes of the " Paraíso Perdido de Milton, que [Luzán] dió a conocer por primera vez en España, traduciendo algunos fragmentos," but at a later point in the same book he qualifies that statement with a "perhaps." The doubt is easily accounted 6 for. After publishing the first edition of his Poética in 1737, Luzán appears to have realised his ignorance of English poetry, or to have had it brought home to him and to have set to work 9 * Historia de las ideas estéticas en España, 2d edition, 1904, vi, 88-9. 6 E. g., Acevedo's Creación del Mundo, Uziel's David and the Marqués de Lazán's more ambitious Métrica histórica, sagrada, profana y general del mundo. Parts of the last of these may have been influenced in a general way by Milton, but I have found no parallel passages. 8 Ibid., ed. cit., v, 175. * Ed. cit., VI, 89: "Sabemos que Luzán había hablado de él con elogio, quizá por vez primera." 9 Cf. introduction to the Poética (2d ed. 1789), p. 1: "Los Diaristas de Trevoux habían notado, que al parecer, el señor Luzán no tenía noticia, o no apreciaba los poetas ingleses, pues no habló de ellos en su Poética; y esta fué una de las cosas que creyó necesario añadir, como lo hizo." to study English literature. As a partial result of this, the second edition of the Poética interpolates in the chapter (II, xvi) entitled “De las imágenes intelectuales, o reflexiones del ingenio" the following passage: El Paraíso Perdido de Juan Milton, Inglés (poema singular, donde entre algunas ideas extravagantes se hallan otras iguales en sublimidad y novedad a las de Homero y Virgilio) abunda en excelentes comparaciones, así por su variedad como por lo remoto de los objetos comparados: de las cuales copiaré algunas por ser este poema poco conocido al común de nuestra nación.10 This tribute is followed by three brief prose translations from Paradise Lost, probably composed not long after 1737, though no evidence is known which enables one to date them with certainty. The extract here quoted (from Book II of Milton's poem) will give an idea of Luzán's success as a translator and of the type of passage which he selected. He might certainly have chosen more wisely: En el Lib. II. compara Milton al Demonio cuando volaba hacia el infierno con una armada. No de otra suerte se descubre en altamar, colgada al parecer de las nubes, una soberbia flota arrojada de Bengala por los vientos que soplan de la parte de la línea equinocial; o que salió de las Islas de Ternate y Tidor (de donde los ricos mercaderes sacan sus aromas y preciosa especería) que intentando doblar el cabo, boga contra la impetuosa corriente por el inmenso mar Ethiópico, y dirige su rumbo hacia el polo, sin que la estorben las tinieblas de la noche: como se dejaba ver y parecía desde lejos rápidamente volando el príncipe de los espíritus malignos.11 1o Ed. cit., p. 252. It is surprising to find no further mention of Milton in the second edition of the Poética; one would have expected it, in particular, in Book IV, which deals with epic poetry. 11 Ed. cit., pp. 253-4. As the original lines are not as well known as those which are reproduced in translation below, they are here copied : As when far off at sea a fleet descry'd Hangs in the clouds, by equinoctial wings Of Ternate and Tidore, whence merchants bring Ply stemming nightly toward the pole. So seem'd (Paradise Lost, Book II, 11. 636-643.) II Whatever may be the truth about the priority of Luzán's translations, it is certain that, long before the second edition of the Poética was published, Paradise Lost was finding many Spanish admirers. In 1754 we find Velázquez, in his Orígenes de la Poesía Castellana,12 writing of "the only translation which we have from the English," namely, a translation of Paradise Lost which was being undertaken by one Alonso Dalda. In 1772 appeared Cadalso's satirical Eruditos a la Violeta, which ridiculed current criticisms of Shakespeare and Milton; 13 to it was appended a series of translations, including some "fragments" from Paradise Lost, accompanied by the originals, often misspelt, but otherwise faithfully reproduced. A brief and unsatisfactory account of Milton's life was also given.14 The translated fragments are chiefly remarkable for the closeness with which they follow the original. Very few liberties are taken by the translator. The result is not always happy: 12 IV, 4: "D. Alonso Dalda, natural de Granada, está actualmente traduciendo en verso suelto el poema del Parayso perdido de Milton; y ésta es la única traducción, que tenemos del inglés.” 18 Obras de D. José Cadalso, Madrid, 1818, Vol. 1, p. 31: "De los poetas ingleses abominad a la francesa, diciendo que su épico Milton deliró, cuando puso artillería en el cielo, cuando hizo hablar a la muerte, al pecado, etc." 14 Ibid., pp. 176-8. Haciéndole fecundo, cual paloma Porque en la cumbre de este asunto excelso Providencia, y los hombres de mí escuchen Later than these translations, in 1778, came an unknown translation by Antonio Palazuelos, referred to by Arteaga,16 and Jovellanos' verse rendering of the first canto of Paradise Lost, which he describes as a "free translation." Actually, the freedom is not remarkable, for the employment of an unrimed line of eleven syllables allows him to exercise more concision than one would have expected in a Spanish version, or perhaps desired. The first lines give some idea of what Jovellanos made of Milton's verse: Canta la inobediencia ¡oh santa musa! Del padre de los hombres, que gustando De Eden la triste pérdida, negadas Y tú, divino Espíritu, a quien más place Vén, y eleva mi voz, y lo que es débil Lo inmundo y tenebroso, porque pueda De Dios, y abrir al hombre sus caminos.17 15 Ibid., pp. 169-170. 16 See Menéndez y Pelayo: Ideas estéticas, ed. cit., p. 89. 17 The whole version may be read in Obras de Jovellanos (B. A. E., Vol. 1, pp. 26-33). Jovellanos' translation had at least one fervent admirer in Meléndez Valdés, to whom, a youth some ten years his junior, himself not deaf to Milton's music, he sent a draft for emendation and comment. "Ahí tiene V. S., por último, el Milton enmendado," is Meléndez' reply, "pero ¿qué enmiendas lleva?" Algunas palabras y nada más, bien que esto no es culpa mía, sino del manuscrito, que tan poco trajo que limar. Yo de mi parte he puesto el cuidado posible, y esto mismo me ha hecho tal vez notar algunas cosas muy ligeras, que V. S. me disimulará, tomando de las apuntaciones aquello solo que le guste. Las más de ellas son por huir de las asonancias, que a mí no me agradan en el verso suelto. . . . Otras van también de alguna voz que he procurado suplir o con otra más fuerte o más acomodada. . . . Lo que resta es que V. S. me mande cuanto antes el segundo canto.18 ... The fruits of Milton's influence on Meléndez Valdés may be seen in the poem La Caída de Luzbel, which in parts is a close imitation of portions of Paradise Lost, chiefly in the first book of that epic. Meléndez' verses are in rimed octaves-and the rimed octave is not a medium calculated to convey into another language the loftiness of Milton's verse which Meléndez so much admired.19 The final couplet, of debatable merit even in the Faerie Queene, is particu. larly unhappy here: Dí, Musa celestial, de donde pudo La atroz discordia, de Luzbel el crudo Junto a la silla de Jehová su silla, It would throw this article out of all proportion to discuss in it how far the author of La Caída de Luzbel is indebted to Milton, 18 Letter of Aug. 14, 1778, reprinted in Cueto's Historia crítica de la poesía castellana en el siglo XVIII, 3d ed., 1893, III, pp. 76 ff. Only the gist of Meléndez' criticism is here quoted. 19 Ibid., p. 83. "Las Lusiadas me han agradado mucho, aunque también, por otra parte, no hallo en ellas ni la fuerza de Ercilla, ni la alteza de Milton. . . ." 20 These are the opening lines. The poem, it may be added, bears no express reference to Milton or to Paradise Lost, nor is it avowedly an imitation. |