Los Amantes de Teruel - Hartzenbusch, Juan Eugenio
[Footnote 4: _Los Amantes de Teruel_, drama en cinco actos en prosa y
verso por Juan Eugenio Hartzenbusch. Madrid. Imprenta de D. Jose Maria
Repulles. 1836.]
Many difficulties beset the dramatist in the construction of the play.
The legend that served as plot was already known to all, so that the
element of suspense could not be used to any great extent. Moreover, the
climax was not in itself dramatic; the death of two lovers through grief
at separation, pathetic though it be, lacked the tragic element of other
similar stories in which death resulted from violence. The _denouement_,
the probability of which would not be generally accepted, had to be
retained in the treatment of a legend so widely known, a legend in which
the essential originality consisted in this very improbability. Careful
preparation throughout the whole play was needed, then, for this
improbable _denouement_, pathetic, rather than tragic; dramatic
incidents had to be supplied by the author's own inventiveness, the
characters had to be carefully delineated, the motivation carefully
considered. How successfully the author was able to overcome these
difficulties, with what dramatic skill he was able to succeed where
dramatists such as Tirso de Molina and Montalban were only partially
successful, careful study of the play will reveal.
The play as given in this edition differs in many ways from the play as
first presented in 1837. More than once the author returned to it, and
the numerous editions needed to supply the popular and continuous demand
gave him the opportunity to revise it and give it the most artistic
finish of which he was capable. Changed literary conditions after
Romanticism had run its course are reflected in the more sober dress of
the revised play; there are reflected in it, too, the greater
restraint, the more scholarly and critical attention to character
delineation and literary finish befitting a man who had passed from the
warm impulsiveness of youth to the calm rationality of middle age. The
student who takes the trouble to compare the text of this edition with
that of the first will see many changes: the five acts are reduced to
four; some of the prose scenes are now in poetic form; the diction is
much improved generally and obscure passages are made clear; some
changes in motivation are to be noted, especially in the scenes leading
up to the voluntary marriage of Isabel with Azagra; the mother's
character is notably ennobled. On the whole, the play has gained by
these revisions; what it has lost in freshness and spontaneity has been
more than counterbalanced by the more careful delineation of character,
improved motivation of action, correctness of diction, and literary
finish. The play in its first form is undoubtedly a better example of
Romanticism in all its phases, its tendencies toward exaggeration, its
crudities of thought and expression, combined with qualities unsurpassed
in any other period of literature; in its revised form it is a more
artistic production, is still a Romantic play, and one of the best in
Spanish literature.
#VI. Romanticism.# Generally speaking, an author belongs to his own
age and country, is moved by the prevalent ideas and sentiments; his
outlook upon life is similar to that of the majority of his
contemporaries. Ordinarily then, a piece of literature of a past age is
understood and fully appreciated only by the student who is able to view
it in its proper historical perspective, to see it through the eyes of
those for whom it was written. Especially is this true of Romantic
literature, the production of ardent and youthful enthusiasts who found
themselves suddenly emancipated from the rigid rules and formalism of
French pseudo-Classicism of the eighteenth century. The tendency in
literature, as in political and social life, is to pass in a pendulum
swing from one extreme to the other, so that to appreciate the fine and
enduring qualities of Romantic literature and to make due allowance for
its exaggerations and other apparent faults, the student must know
something of the Romantic movement and of the Classicism that
immediately preceded it. Moreover, his purpose in reading a literary
masterpiece is not merely to understand and appreciate it in itself, but
also to gain through it some understanding of the age or literary
movement of which it is a representative. In order, then, that _Los
Amantes de Teruel_ may be more fully appreciated as a dramatic
masterpiece, and in order that through it the student may come to a
fuller understanding of Romanticism, his attention is now directed to
the essential characteristics of this important literary movement.
Romanticism in Spanish literature is the name given to the literary
revolt that began about 1830 against pseudo-Classicism. A similar revolt
had already freed the other literatures of Europe, so that the many
Spanish exiles who had been forced to seek refuge for political reasons
in England or on the Continent there became familiar with the new ideas
in literature. Ardent converts to the new literary ideals, these
political exiles, when permitted to return to Spain at the death of the
despotic Ferdinand VII in 1833, became the leaders in a literary
revolution that soon swept away all opposition. The logical reaction
from the rigid rules and formalism, new ideas in political and social
life weakened opposition so rapidly and effectively that the Romantic
poetry and plays of the Duque de Rivas, Espronceda, Garcia Gutierrez,
Hartzenbusch, and others found a ready and enthusiastic welcome.
In the comparison that is to be made of Romanticism and Classicism,
_romantic_ and _classic_ are to be used in their technical, literary
sense. As ordinarily used, _romantic_ means the extreme opposite of
prosaic or commonplace; in literary history, Romantic is used to
describe the movement known as Romanticism. Classic, in its oldest and
ordinary acceptation, means the best of its class or kind; in its
literary sense, _classic_, or _classical_, is usually applied to the
type of literature that harmonized so completely with eighteenth century
rationalism, the Classicism, or rather pseudo-Classicism, which,
enthroned in France, ruled all literary Europe until the closing years
of the century. In the following comparison, Classic, Classicist, and
Classicism are the opposites of Romantic, Romanticist, and Romanticism.
Romanticism, in its general application to all kinds of literature and
to the literatures of all countries where it made itself effectively
felt, shows the following characteristics:
1. _Subjectivity_, the introduction of the personal note, the expression
by the author of his own individual feelings and ideas. The Classicist,
aiming at universality and completeness, considered only the typical and
eternal as suitable material for literature and carefully excluded
whatever seemed peculiar to himself; his ideal was to give perfect
literary form to ideas and sentiments acceptable to mankind generally,
truths of universal application. Originality of idea or sentiment was
not of prime importance with him; his aim was rather to give finished
form to "what oft was said, but ne'er so well expressed." The aim of the
Romanticist, on the other hand, was to turn to literary uses his own
individual experiences, to give forceful and effective, rather than
elegant, expression to his own peculiar feelings and ideas. This
subjectivity led naturally to many abuses; it also led to the production
of some of the masterpieces of literature. Lyric poetry, that had almost
died of inanition during the period of Classicism, took on new and
vigorous life and became again one of the most important literary
genres. The mere mention of such famous poets as Byron, Shelley, Heine,
Musset, Leopardi, Espronceda, indicates the extent and importance of
lyric poetry in the first half of the nineteenth century.
2. _Emotional appeal_. Classicism made its appeal to the intellect;
Romanticism to the emotions. The aim of the Classicist being to give
perfect literary expression to the accumulated wisdom of mankind or to
reform social, moral, or political conditions by means of ridicule, he
accepted logic as his guide. The Romanticist, whose aim it was to
express his individual sentiments and ideas, rebelled against the
restraints of logic and common sense; his purpose was not to persuade
his reader or hearer by logical reasoning, but rather to carry him off
his feet by the onrush of his passions and sentiments. The Classicist
mistrusted the imagination for fear that it might lead him away from
common sense and moderation; the Romanticist turned to it eagerly as the
most effective means of conveying to reader or hearer his ardent
sentiments and vague aspirations. For the reason then that the
Classicist made his appeal to the intellect, mistrusted the imagination,
and usually avoided all strong passions except that of indignation,
Classicism tended to become more and more prosaic. Romanticism, because
of its appeal to the emotions and to the imagination, put new life and
power into literature, and immeasurably widened its range. On the other
hand the tendency on the part of writers of little ability and less
judgment to go to absurd extremes in their efforts to express strange
and original ideas and sentiments, to get as far away as possible from
the logical and commonplace, led to the production of much absurd
writing. This and the attempt of many of them to apply the extreme
principles of Romanticism to daily life as well as to literature
resulted in the derogatory sense that the word _romantic_ came to have
in its ordinary acceptation. The results of Romanticism in its
exaggerated form may be seen in the satirical article written in 1837 by
Mesonero Romanos, _El Romanticismo y los Romanticos_. This article,
highly recommended in this connection, may easily be found in his
collected writings _Obras_, Madrid, 1881, or, better still, it may be
studied in the excellent edition of Professor G.T. Northup, _Selections
from Mesonero Romanos_.
3. _Spiritual awakening_. The latter half of the eighteenth century was
a materialistic age. The realities of life were limited to such as could
be understood by the five senses and the reasoning faculty. Life and
literature for the Classicist meant reasoned submission to things as
they were; achievement was the accepted basis of judgment for his life
or literature. The Romanticist rebelled against this materialistic view
of life; for him the real truths lay beyond the apparent realities; he
grasped at the impalpable and infinite, and wished to have his life and
literature judged by his aspirations, rather than by his achievements.
Hence, too, the vague longings, the gentle melancholy or violent revolt,
the spiritual uplift. The new sense of the wonder and glory of the
universe, as well as the spiritual reality behind the material, has
suggested as a definition of Romanticism the "Renascence of Wonder."
4. _Revival of the Middle Ages and national traditions_. The
Romanticists were inclined to turn away from the prosaic present and to
seek material for their writings in the Middle Ages, the time of
unrestrained feelings and emotions, of chivalrous adventure and romance,
of strong religious faith, of miracles and superstition. The historical
novel, in which the powerful imagination of a Walter Scott made the past
live again, became popular throughout Europe; innumerable dramas sought
their plots in medieval history and legend. Spain, with her rich
literature of popular ballads and drama, a storehouse of picturesque
legends and traditions, attracted the attention of Romanticists
everywhere, so that for Spaniards the movement came to have a patriotic
significance. The best Romanticists did not limit themselves to the
Middle Ages; they broadened their vision to include the whole past of
the human race, whereas the Classicists, fixing their eyes steadily upon
ancient Greece and Rome, whenever they were inclined to turn away from
the present, ignored entirely the medieval period and the early modern.
5. _Picturesqueness_. Seeking to give polished expression to the
probable and typical, the Classicist abhorred exaggeration and violent
contrasts. The Romanticist, on the other hand, was attracted to the
grotesque, mingled the ugly and the beautiful, the commonplace and the
fantastic; he delighted in striking antitheses.
6. _Love of inanimate nature_. The Classicist, instead of going directly
to Nature for individual inspiration, was content to repeat in new ways
the generally accepted ideas regarding natural scenery. His interest lay
almost wholly in mankind, so that inanimate Nature usually served as a
merely conventional background. The Romanticist loved Nature for its own
sake, and many masterpieces of lyric poetry were due to its inspiration.
He loved Nature in all her aspects and moods; if these were grandiose or
violent, the greater was his admiration.
7. _Freedom from rule and conventionality in literary forms and
technique._ The foregoing characteristics, concerned mainly with the
content of Romantic literature, would naturally mean a corresponding
revolution in literary form and technique. Rules and conventions had
kept accumulating about literature, until by the middle of the
eighteenth century, when French Classicism dominated literary Europe,
they were so rigid that only a few of the many men of letters were able
to produce literature that was not wholly artificial and uninspired.
Each kind of literature was supposed to be written in a certain way;
narrative poetry had a certain prescribed meter; lyric poetry another;
tragedy and comedy should be carefully kept apart. The Romanticist
proceeded at once to throw overboard all these rules and
conventionalities. Each literary production was to be judged upon its
own merits as literature, not upon the closeness of its adherence to any
set of rules, and each author was to be at liberty to get his results in
any way that he might choose. Hence we find the mingling of literary
genres, the neglect of the dramatic unities, the invention of new meters
and the revival of old ones.
8. _Richness of language_. Because of the continual elimination of words
considered unsuitable for literary expression, the language of the
Classicists was becoming more and more impoverished, diction was
becoming more and more stereotyped and artificial. The Romanticists,
with their revolutionary ideas as to content, rebelled against any rule
or convention that would restrict their choice of words or diction;
seeking complete and effective self-expression, they turned to literary
use all the resources of the language of their own time and of any other
age as well. The result was a great enrichment of language through the
effective use of highly colored, picturesque words and diction, as fresh
and bright as newly coined pieces of gold.
Such are the general characteristics of the movement that had such a
profound effect upon the literatures of western Europe in the closing
years of the eighteenth century and the first half of the nineteenth.
All of them may be observed in the literature produced in Spain during
the twenty years from 1830 to 1850, although, naturally, they do not all
have the same importance there as in other countries. In a general way
it may be said that the movement was not so revolutionary as in France,
for example, where Classicism had taken deeper root. Moreover, in Spain,
Romanticism meant the revival of some of the literary ideals of the
_Siglo de Oro_, and to this extent at least could hardly be considered
revolutionary. The most complete representative of Romanticism in
Spanish dramatic literature is the _Don Alvaro_ of Angel de Saavedra,
better known as the Duque de Rivas; in this play are to be found all the
above-mentioned characteristics, even those that have to do more
naturally with lyric poetry, subjectivity and love of nature. Not only
does it present Romanticism in its most effective form; it also shows
the pitfalls of exaggeration and improbability that even the greatest
Romanticists failed to avoid when the check of common sense was removed
and free rein was given to the imagination. But since we are here
concerned mainly with _Los Amantes de Teruel_, a play that demands for
its understanding and appreciation much less familiarity with the
Spanish language than that required by _Don Alvaro_, the extent to which
the masterpiece of Hartzenbusch is representative of Romanticism will
now be briefly noted.[5]
[Footnote 5: In order that the student may discover for himself the
essential differences between the two schools of drama, it is
recommended that he read a classical play such as Moratin's _El Si de
las Ninas_ before reading _Los Amantes de Teruel_. In comparing the two
plays he should bear in mind that, for the reason that they are both
artistic masterpieces, they avoid the extremes of Classicism and
Romanticism, and that they do not illustrate entirely the opposite
characteristics of the less artistic examples of the two kinds of
drama.]
#VII. Romanticism in _Los Amantes de Teruel._# That the appeal is
mainly to the emotions and imagination is quite evident. The plot is
based on a legend that owes its chief interest to the unusual and even
improbable ending; and the exceptional and improbable, if they are to be
effectively treated in literature, must appeal to the imagination, must
so stir the sentiments of the reader or hearer that the reasoning
faculty may be kept from becoming too active. Not only is the
_denouement_ itself improbable; the somewhat melodramatic figure of
Zulima and the important part she plays in keeping apart the lovers
until it is too late, would hardly be convincing if the main appeal of
the play were to the intellect. These improbabilities are willingly
ignored by the reader or spectator as he allows himself to be carried
along in the current of passion to the final scene of deep emotion and
intense pathos. Melodious verse and poetic imagery help to make
effective this emotional appeal.
The spiritual appeal of the play is apparent. To Marsilla and Isabel
love is so spiritualized that materialism can find in it no place. Their
love for each other is the "encarnacion del carino anticipado al nacer,"
life means for them "seguir con el cuerpo amando, como el espiritu amo."
Love is life itself; and when no longer permitted to love each other in
this life for the reason that Isabel, believing her lover to be dead and
wishing to sacrifice herself in order that her mother's good name may be
preserved, has become the wife of Rodrigo de Azagra, they willingly
return to the spiritual world from which together _they had come into
the world of materiality_.
The dramatization of a medieval legend is typical of the newly awakened
interest in the Middle Ages. Five years before the beginning of the
supposed action of the play, shortly after Marsilla had left home to
gain name and fortune in the wars against the infidels, was fought at
Navas de Tolosa one of the most decisive battles between Christianity
and Mohammedanism. The year after his departure from Teruel there
ascended the throne of Aragon the boy that was to be known to history as
_Jaime el Conquistador_ because of his reconquest of southeastern Spain
for Christianity. In the lull that preceded the approaching storm the
Christians and Moslems in the eastern part of the peninsula were at
peace, so that in the play they mingle freely, treating each other with
the chivalrous respect that was characteristic of the Middle Ages. The
numerous references to contemporary historic personages and events and
the careful attention to local color bring vividly before us the life of
that part of Aragon recently recovered from the Moors. The _denouement_
is made less improbable by placing the action of the play in that age of
deep convictions, exalted idealism, chivalrous customs, and in that part
of Spain where tenacity of purpose has always been regarded as a
characteristic trait.
Picturesqueness, in its literary sense is not very apparent in the play
as we now have it. In the first version there were examples of striking
contrasts, a mingling of the tragic and comic, the noble and base, but
these were toned down or eliminated by the author in his revisions of
the play. For an example of exaggerated picturesqueness, with its
violent contrasts, mingling of the sublime and vulgar, the grotesque and
beautiful, the student is referred to _Don Alvaro_.
The classical conventionality that each kind of literature should have
its prescribed form and that the various literary genres should be kept
apart was disregarded by Hartzenbusch. In this play we see a mingling of
scenes in prose with those in verse, we find the versification varied
according to the nature of the scenes, a mingling of dramatic dialogue
and lyrical expression of sentiment and passion. The action of the play
in its first form was impeded by the excessive lyricism of some of the
scenes; although notably reduced, this lyric element is still quite
apparent in the scene between Marsilla and Zulima in the first act, for
example; or between Marsilla and Isabel in the last. In the first
version Mari-Gomez, later changed to Teresa with the suppression of most
of her garrulity, was made to serve as a _graciosa_ and thus relieve the
tenseness of the serious scenes.
As to the three dramatic unities so dear to the Classicists, those of
time and place are disregarded. The action shifts from Valencia to
Teruel; the time occupied covers the last six days of the _plazo_ given
Marsilla in which to gain name and fortune and return home to claim
Isabel for wife. The unity of action, the one essential unity in any
work of art, is carefully preserved. In the first version could be seen
something of the Romantic tendency to complicate the plot by the
introduction of an excessive number of characters and needless episodes,
but in its final form the plot is simple and nothing is permitted to
interfere with its dramatic development.
In the first version there was also some tendency to abuse the new
freedom from conventionality in language, a tendency to seek out unusual
words and phrases for the sake of their picturesqueness, rather than for
their artistic appropriateness. In the polishing and toning-down
process, such words and phrases were eliminated, so that the play in its
final form serves as a good illustration of the permanent enrichment of
the literary language by the Romanticists. Likewise, in its
versification, it offers a good example of the metrical variety found in
the Spanish dramatists of the Golden Age and revived by the
Romanticists.
#VIII. Versification.# Only the fundamental principles of Spanish
versification will be noted here. For a more adequate treatment the
student is referred to such works as Andres Bello's _Ortologia y
metrica_ (Vol. IV of _Obras completas_, Madrid, 1890), or the _Prosodia
castellana y versificacion_ of E. Benot; or to the more easily
accessible notes on Spanish versification in Hills and Morley's _Modern
Spanish Lyrics_ or Ford's _Spanish Anthology_.
Some knowledge of two of the essential differences between Spanish and
English versification is needed for the appreciation of the poetry of
this play. Whereas in English poetry the number of feet to the line is
essential, in Spanish the basis of meter is the number of syllables;
moreover, in syllable-counting there are certain rules (too complicated
to be given here) regarding the treatment of contiguous vowels as one
syllable or more than one. Another difference that should be noted is
that in Spanish poetry there are two kinds of rime, consonantal rime and
assonance. Consonantal rime is the same as that used in English poetry,
identity of the last stressed vowel sound as well as all following vowel
or consonant sounds in two or more verses; as for example, in lines
127-130, Act I, _clemencia, Valencia: favor, mejor_. Assonance is
identity in a series of verses of the last stressed vowel and of a
following unstressed vowel, if there be one, but not of a consonant; in
other words, assonance is the correspondence of the vowels, but not of
the consonants, in the riming syllables. Thus, in the first 110 lines of
the play, all the even verses have the same vowel in the last stressed
syllables: _volver, administre, fiel, pie, Adel, partire, el, rey_, etc.
Only the strong vowel in a diphthong is recognized, so that in these 110
lines the assonance of the alternate verses is in _e_. In the first 148
lines of Act IV all the even verses have one and the same vowel in the
last accented syllable and one and the same vowel in the unaccented
syllable: _pueblo, bandoleros, prenderlos, tiempo, vinieron, provecho_,
etc. The assonance is, therefore, _e-o_.
Of the many verse-forms, _i.e._, definite combinations of line and rime,
to be found in Spanish poetry, we find the following in this play:
_romance, romance heroico, redondilla, quintilla, decima, copla de arte
mayor_, and _silva_.