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I might,

Have seen a grandeur in this thought,

Even magnificence of flattery,

Once, but not now. The dead boy makes him vile

In this thing as in all things. Was not this

The tiger's act? beast fury?

To my thinking, this is one of the most delicately felicitous innovations in the long line of experimentation in the story of Herod. I can only repeat that it is a pity that Phillips is probably too bookishly conscious in his manner to be quite convincing, yet in substance and dramatic treatment his play of Herod seems to me more nearly to realize the possibilities of the much-worked theme than any other. I expect, however, that so rich a tragic vein will be worked again.

Columbia University.

THE MORO EXPÓSITO AND SPANISH ROMANTICISM

BY E. ALLISON PEERS

In the Revista española for 1834 and 1835 there is a series of articles which cannot but interest in the highest degree all students of Spanish Romanticism. The first two of these, dated May 23 and 24, 1834, deal with Angel Saavedra's Moro Expósito and will form the subject of the present paper. Those dated March 25 and April 12, 1835, are concerned with Don Alvaro, which had been played for the first time on March 22 of that year. Both sets of articles are anonymous.1

I

Azorín, in his Rivas y Larra, discusses the second of these sets of articles and attributes it categorically to Larra. "El día 25 publicó la Revista española un folletón dedicado al estreno. No lleva firma; pero es de Larra. El estilo es de Larra; las citas son de Larra. En el folletón publicaba aquí Larra sus artículos." Against this view it may be urged: (1) that the article in question (25 March, 1835) is unsigned, whereas most of those by Figaro in this and other volumes are signed with the author's name or nom de plume; (2) that (no doubt for this reason) the article and that of April 12 are not included in any edition of Larra's works known to me; (3) that in the second of the two articles (12 April, 1835), which Azorín seems to have missed, the writer speaks of himself as having been on the closest terms of intimacy with Rivas-on closer terms than Larra is known to have been. Could Larra have truly said of Don Alvaro: "Le ví nacer y crecer, y en cuanto podía mi poquedad ayudé a su crecimiento, y tengo amor entrañable, amor casi paternal a la criatura,

The Revista Española (1832-6)) is not a very accessible review, but it may be consulted in the Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid (Catalogue number 5/288). The volumes are, however, frequently mutilated, and some of the literary articles have been deliberately cut out.

2

* Rivas y Larra,-Razón social del romanticismo en España (Madrid, Renacimiento, 1916), pp. 80-3.

'P. 80.

dimanado quizá del amor casi fraternal que me une con el padre."? It is certain that these two articles are by the same writer, or at least claim to be, and the two articles on the Moro Expósito are sufficiently similar in their general character to have come from the same hand. In any case there seems to be no evidence on either side with respect to them which cannot also be applied to the articles of 1835. And as my object in writing this article is to consider the two notices of the Moro Expósito upon their own merits and independently of those of their author, I shall not expend further space upon considerations of authorship, but pass to the notices themselves.

II

If space permitted, it would probably be thought justifiable to reprint these two articles as they stand, together with a commentary, since they have not before been described and are by no means easily accessible to the student. It is possible, however, both to economise in space, and at the same time to bring out in some detail the most significant parts of the notices by omitting portions which are not particularly important.*

The review begins by a comparison between Saavedra and the young Polish poet Mickiewiez, who had, like Saavedra, been persecuted and exiled for his liberal views. Mickiewiez is "pre-eminent in the Romantic genre" and all now recognise his genius. And to this point too has the Spanish poet attained: " se ha lanzado en la carrera del romanticismo."

The comparison causes the writer to reflect upon the differing characteristics of the Romanticism of various countries:

* El (romanticismo) de Mickiewiez se resiente del estado de su ánimo por la opresión de la Polonia. . . . Otro es ya el carácter romántico del famoso alemán Goethe, como otro es el del inglés lord Byron, diferente también del del francés Lamartine y aun más del de Victor Hugo, exagerado escritor en este género. Reinando pues tanta diversidad, casi deberá calificarse de romântico todo lo que no se someta a los preceptos de Horacio y de Boileau, o que no se arregle a los modelos que nos han transmitido los autores reconocidos por eminentemente clásicos.

What then, is Romanticism? is the author's question, and it is

Throughout it may be assumed that the quotations are taken from the second of the articles (May 24), except those asterisked, which come from the earlier (May 23).

this question which gives his article its primary importance. There is no doubt but that Saavedra is to take his place at the head of a "Romantic" school. But this work, this Moro Expósito by virtue of which he takes this position, is it Romantic at all in the sense which has up to the present time been given to the word? It has a prologue in which the writer claims that the poem is neither classical nor romantic. Is he justified in saying this, or does the Moro Expósito contain so many avowedly romantic traits that it is entitled to the epithet "romantic"? This is the critic's judgment:

Esta invasión (sc: romántica) sería realmente estrepitosa, si el Sr. de Saavedra llega a encontrar muchos sectarios y diremos ingenuamente nuestro sentir: al decir sus sectarios, juzgamos que más podrá ganarlos con los argumentos desenvueltos en el prólogo, que con los ejemplos suministrados en los doce romances de su leyenda, pues es preciso convenir en que esta no es una composición esencialmente romántica. Reinan en ella con frecuencia un buen sabor de nuestros mejores poetas, reminiscencias de sus giros, de sus imágenes, de sus galas, que tienen todo el brillo de imaginaciones orientales más bien que el sesgo metafísico, los conceptos nebulosos y las pinturas fantásticas de los que marchan por la senda del romanticismo exclusivo. Sin embargo, el Sr. de Saavedra en bastantes ocasiones, sino se eleva a todas las licencias románticas, rompe al menos una porción de los grillos impuestos, por lo que se entiende en sentido clásico por buen gusto. Alguna consideración le guarda todavía, cuando se contenta con dar a su obra el modesto título de leyenda, y cuando en vez de dividirla en cantos se reduce a hacerlo en romances la más atrevida de sus innovaciones está en el lenguaje y en el estilo. En varios episodios se detiene en hacer descripciones de sucesos y personas de un aspecto grotesco; y entonces no vacila en echar mano de palabras triviales para los que quieren que la poesía no degenere de su carácter noble y distintivo. Aquí caeríamos también en otra cuestión muy controvertida. La poesía cuando presenta escenas familiares y aun vulgares, debe hacer que sus actores hablen un idioma ajeno de su condición y de la verdad? No debe buscar el efecto en

The prologue was the work of Antonio Alcalá Galiano, though it is not signed. It is in the main concerned with the question of classicism versus romanticism, but the concluding pages are devoted to an illuminating statement of the principal characteristics of the Moro Expósito viewed from the standpoint of the author.

To quote from the prologue: "Con decir esto, ha declarado el autor su intento al componer el siguiente poema. No ha pretendido hacerlo clásico ni romántico, divisiones arbitrarias en cuya existencia no cree, siendo claro, por lo mismo, que no se ha propuesto obedecer a los que las pregonan como ciertas y promulgan como obligatorias."

las copias exactas, más que en la inverosimil elegancia de una fraseología inadecuada? Este problema ya está resuelto por los críticos que no se dejan influir por un sistemático espíritu de partido. . . . El lance es saber cómo y cuando se han de decir las cosas; en manos de un escritor de ingenio, nada hay trivial: él sabe ennoblecerlo todo y producir el efecto que se proponen las artes de imaginación.

I have shown elsewhere,' at greater length than it is possible to do here, how varying were the conceptions of Romanticism current in Spain before 1835, and how large a part was played in them by what would now be considered the exaggerations of Romanticism. Additional point is given to that fact by the passage just cited. The Moro Expósito, we are told, is not "essentially Romantic" because it lacks the "sesgo metafísico," the "conceptos nebulosos," the "pinturas fantásticas" of the "exclusive " Romanticists. One would have thought that the "pinturas" of the poem were at least "fantastic" enough for the critic, but no! He was evidently thinking of the type of work of which Mora had written fifteen years before: "¿Qué legión de espíritus tenebrosos se ha apoderado de los escritores de nuestros días? ¿qué sed de horrores atormenta sus desarregladas imaginaciones? . . . . Gracias a la literatura de los pueblos septentrionales, los personajes de los dramas y novelas son asesinos, salteadores, brujas, magos, corsarios, diablos y hasta vampiros." This was to him the Romantic type.

However, there are admittedly certain Romantic traits in the poem, whatever be the precise definition to be adopted of the word "Romantic." And in the second article, before considering the argument of the Moro Expósito and its various characteristics in detail, our critic returns to the subject of Romanticism in general, and particularly as illustrated by the poem. This second article begins thus:

Empeñados en la cuestión del clasicismo y del romanticismo, al extender nuestro primer artículo sobre esta leyenda del Sr. Saavedra, no nos fué posible ocuparnos particularmente de su mérito literario; pero creemos oportuno fijar la atención sobre una obra que sale al público, no sólo para ser juzgada respecto de lo que por sí misma vale, sino con la pretensión

'Modern Language Review, July 1921, pp. 281-296.

"In Crónica científica y literaria de Madrid, No. 275, 16 Nov. 1819. The reference in the concluding words is of course to Byron. See Revue de littérature comparée, Jan. 1922. pp. 113-6.

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