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On Espronceda's Personality
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
Extract
Two schools of thought exist today concerning the Byronic attitude revealed in Espronceda's works: the traditional school declares that it is a reflection of the rebellious, irreligious, Bohemian character of the poet, while the new school believes that Espronceda deliberately acted and wrote in such a way as to make the public think that he was a dangerous rebel, merely to cast an aura of romanticism about his own person. According to the latter critics, Espronceda was playing a part or maintaining a pose. They claim that his friends knowingly contributed to the false portrait and that their accounts of Espronceda's disdain for conventionality—which are taken quite literally by the traditional school—are but fabrications intended to foster a legend. Hence the new critics give no credence to Ferrer del Río's statement that Espronceda was depicting himself in the hero of El estudiante de Salamanca or Escosura's implication that Byron's romantic adventures and disordered existence influenced profoundly Espronceda's fiery soul, “not less naturally rebellious against the common rules of life.”
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References
1 The leader of the group is J. Cascales y Muñoz, the well-documented but overzealous defender of our poet's moral reputation. See his Apuntes y materiales para la biografía de don José de Espronceda in Revue Hispanique, xxiii, especially p. 6; Don José de Expronceda, su época, su vida y sus obras (Madrid, 1914), p. 16; and El auténtico Espronceda pornográfico (Toledo, 1932), p. 10.
2 For some early statements of the traditional opinion, cf. Menéndez y Pelayo, Horacio en España, ii, 222; Valera in Lafuente, Historia de España, xxii, 319; Pardo Bazán quoted by Cascales y Muñoz, J. de E., p. 218.
3 Ferrer del Río's biography is printed as an introduction to most editions of Espronceda's works, beginning with the second (1846). It first appeared in El Laberinto, Nov. 16, 1843, in somewhat different form, and was also printed in Ferrer's Galería de la literatura española en el siglo XIX (1846).
4 P. de la Escocura, D. José de Espronceda: su personalidad poética y sus obras, printed as a preface to Espronceda's Obras poéticas y escritos en prosa (Madrid, 1884), pp. 39 and 41.
5 Cascales y Muñoz, Esp. porn., p. 10. Domenchina comments as follows on Cascales y Muñoz' attitude: “No hace falta insistir en que el más fervoroso biógrafo de Espronceda, al pretender disculpar sus extravíos y exaltar sus virtudes, convierte al autor de El Diablo Mundo en un mamarracho despreciable. .. . Pero no fué un insolvente mental y moral, esto es, un farsante.” Obras poéticas completas de Espronceda, Ed. Aguilar, 1942, pp. 47-48.
6 A résumé of the biography and the text of Espronceda's answer are printed by Cascajes Muñoz, Esp. porn., pp. 22-25. The owner and editor of El Labriego was Espronceda's friend Villalta. Cf. Hartzenbusch, Apuntes para un catálogo de periódicos madrileños, no. 382.
7 Escosura, op. cit., p.57.
8 A. Cortón, Espronceda (1906); quoted by Cascales y Muñoz, J. de E., p. 187.
9 C. Barja, Libros y autores modernos, p. 121.
10 Escosura, op. cit., p. 39.
11 Escosura, op. cit., p. 45.
12 Their titles were Romance a la mañana, La tormenta de la noche, La vida del campo, and La noche (soneto). Cascales y Muñoz published (J. de Esp., p. 135; also in Revue Hispanique, xxiii, pp. 63-64) a fragment of La vida del campo, definitely an imitation of Horace, and the sonnet, whose pastoral theme and style betray its classicism.
A presidential address by Cabanilles called on members of the Academia del Mirto to follow “los buenos modelos” (J. de Esp., p. 137) and especially to imitate “los ecos de la lira de Anfriso” (op. cit., p. 139. “Anfriso” was Lista's poetic name in the Academy). For a more complete record of the Academia, cf. Discoursos leídos ante la Real Academia Sevillana de Buenas Letras el 3 de enero de 1897 por el . . . marqués de Jerez de la Frontera y el Sr. D. F. Rodríguez Marín . . . (Sevilla, 1897).
13 We do not claim to have exhausted the possibilities of research in the periodicals. Most of our material is at second hand from Le Gentil, Revues littéraires de l'Espagne (Paris, 1909), and the Liverpool Studies in Spanish Literature, i (articles by R. F. Brown and R. Silva). Much new evidence may still be available.
14 In Ilustración Española y Americana, xx (1876), 118.
16 Cf. J. Cascales y Muñoz, J. de E., p. 133.
16 Published in Obras poéticas (1884), p. 126 ff.
17 In the prologue of the 1820 edition of the poems of Meléndez Valdés, this poet suggests to the younger generation epics on national subjects: “Ahí tienes un Pelayo, un Colón o la conquista de Granada para la musa épica; argumento el primero en que pensé algún día, embebecido por su interés y grandeza, de que me retrajeron mis desgracias, y en que lloraré siempre no haberme ejercitado . . .” (cf. W. E. Colford, J. Meléndez Valdés [New York, 1942], p. 338). Meléndez looked on Lista as his most competent follower and passed on his lyre to him in one of his late poems. We have therefore the possibility that the subject and even the plan of Pelayo passed from Meléndez to Lista to Espronceda.
18 Letter dated March 28, 1828. Published by Cascales y Muñoz in Revue Hispanique, xxiii, 97.
19 As stated by Escosura, Obras poéticas (1884), p. 42; Northup, El Estudiante de Salamanca and Other Selections from Esp., p. xvi, and many other authorities.
20 Moreno Villa, in J. de Esp. Obras (Clásicos cast.), p. 36.
21 Cf. P. H. Churchman in Revue Hispanique, xvii, 177.
22 Northup, op. cit., p. xix. Northup adds that this work is “in his early classic manner.”
23 Escosura, op. cit., p. 44, finds the style of this work similar to Meléndez Valdés.
24 Churchman, Revue Hispanique, xvii, 161 and 178.
25 The first four lines of this poem closely resemble four verses of Quintana, a fact noted independently by Escosura, op. cit., p. 48, and Foulché-Delbosc, Revue Hispanique, xxi, 668.
26 Speaking of this work Northup (op. cit., p. xxii) says: “Espronceda in 1830 was still casting his most impassioned utterances in the classic mold.” The poem appeared in El Español, April 26, 1836.
27 This does not preclude an earlier date of composition. The fact that this poem appeared in the play is noted by Churchman, in Revue Hispanique, xvii, 219, and by Enrique Rodríguez-Solís, Espronceda (1884), p. 162.
28 Escosura, op. cit., pp. 55-56. On the nature of the poem he adds: “. . . pertenece ya al género romántico, que entonces comenzaba a florecer, o más bien a renacer en nuestra España. No es oda, no es canción, no es nada con fórmula precisa, no lleva uniforme de escuela . . .” Note that the implication is that the poem belongs to the romantic revival rather than the romantic revolt.
29 Escosura, op. cit., p. 55.
30 Cf. Le Gentil, Revues littéraires de l'Espagne, pp. 42 and 47.
31 The author has a copy of these verses due to the kindness of Señora Doña Olga Domingo de Texidor.
32 According to the Páginas olvidadas this work had already appeared in El Artista (1835-36). We believe it falls about the same date as Sancho Saldaña, also influenced by Scott. As Bonilla says: “. . . recuerda el ambiente de Ricardo en Palestina de W. Scott.” Quoted by Cascales y Muñoz, J. de E., 233.
It seems logical that the poem El paladín cautivo (marked in the manuscript “Eugenio Ochoa Paris 1830”) and the several imitations of medieval popular forms (said in the MS to be “de Espronceda: Paris 1829”) which Churchman published in the Revue Hispanique (xvii, pp. 186 and 181-185, see also p. 162) should fall at about this date. Espronceda still writes in a thoroughly classical style in 1830 (cf. n. 26) and even as late as 1832 (in A Matilde). These facts lead to the following conclusions: that El paladín cautivo, although found among papers most of which concern Espronceda, is probably not by him, but rather by Eugenio de Ochoa, as the MS states; that the date “Paris 1829” on the other MS must refer only to the first poem of the little collection, if the compositions are really by Espronceda. The first work is on a pastoral theme, using mythological persons, quite in keeping with the style Espronceda was using in 1829.
33 Cf. Escosura, op. cit., p. 53.
34 Cf. Cascales y Muñoz, J. de E.
35 Churchman, MLN, xxxiii, 16. The earliest dates for publication of these works we have noticed are November 18, 1837 (Oscar y Malvina, cf. Silva, in Liverpool Studies, I, 95) and 1838 (Himno al sol, cf. Le Gentil, op. cit., p. 79).
36 F. Blanco García, La literatura española en el siglo XIX, Parte primera, p. 177.
37 For this statement, cf. Larra, iii, Artículos políticos y sociales (Clásicos castellanos), pp. 163-164. On p. 169 of this book it is said that the publication took place May 30, 1835. I. Sánchez Estevan, M. J. de Larra, p. 240, gives March 30 as the date. As the first source gives incorrectly the place of publication as La Revista Española (which ceased independent publication after its merger with the Mensajero de las Cortes on March 1, 1835) we believe that Sánchez Estevan is likely to be right in the matter of the date also.
38 Le Gentil, op. cit., p. 47.
39 Le Gentil, op. cit., p. 39; Brown, in Liverpool Studies i, 53.
40 Le Gentil, op. cit., p. 39.
41 P. 151.
42 Cf. Brown, in Liverpool Studies, i, 53.
43 Brown, ibid., p. 78. Señora Doña Olga Domingo de Texidor has furnished us with a copy of these fragments which comprise the opening seventy-five lines of the legend plus a quatrain not utilized in the final version. Aside from this quatrain, there are practically no diffrences between the earlier publication and the poem as it appeared in final form.
44 Silva, ibid., p. 95.
45 Cf. Cascales y Muñoz, in Revue Hispanique, xxiii, 48.
46 Brown, ibid., p. 65.
47 Cf. Enrique Rodríguez-Solís, Espronceda (1884), p. 169; Ferrer del Río, in Obras poéticas, pp. 19-21.
48 The work was reviewed in El Labriego, October 7, 1840. Cf. Solís, op. cit., p. 178.
49 Cf. Churchman, in Revue Hispanique, xvii, 202.
50 Cf. Obras poéticas (1884), p. 70.
51 Cf. Obras poéticas (1884), p. 13; also Escosura, ibid., p. 33; Cascales y Muñoz, J. de E., p. 85; Fitzmaurice-Kelly, in MLR, iv, 24.
52 Ibid., p. 23; cf. Cascales y Muñoz, op. cit., pp. 58-59.
53 Fitzmaurice-Kelly, loc. cit.
54 Published originally in El Siglo; reprinted in Solís, op. cit., p. 121.
55 These ideas are strikingly similar to Lista's. Cf. his Ensayos, i, 33 and 37.
56 Cf. W. E. Colford, J. Meléndez Valdés, p. 284; P. Mazzei, La poesia di Espronceda, pp. 39-40.
57 Op. cit., i, 35; ii, 32.
58 Le Gentil reprints this satire, op. cit., p. 46. The essay was accompanied by a caricature, in which contemporaries recognized the figure of Meléndez. Cf. Colford, op. cit., p. 266.
59 Cf. Peers, The Romantic Movement in Spain, pp. 321-323; Barja, Libros y autores modernos, p. 123: “En Espronceda, como en la gran mayoría de los poetas líricos españoles, la naturaleza es elemento puramente decorativo, charlatanería poética.”
60 Espronceda and Teresa had not separated at the time of the birth of their daughter (May 11, 1834; cf. Cascales y Muñoz, in Revue Hispanique, xxiii, 107). Zorrilla says that when he visited Espronceda early in 1837 it was not long after the separation (cf. Solís, op. cit., p. 159). These limits would place the rupture between mid 1834 and the end of 1836. Solís, op. cit., pp. 155-156, places it variously shortly after the publication of El verdugo and El mendigo (September, 1835) and during the disturbances caused by the fall of Istúriz (August-September, 1836). From this evidence September, 1836 seems most probable, as this was the date formerly attributed to the two poems.
61 Cf. Foulché-Delbosc, in Revue Hispanique, xxi, 667; P. Mazzei, op. cit., p. 132.
62 Escosura, in Ilustración Española y Americana, xx (1876), 87.
63 Escosura, in Obras poéticas (1884), p. 30.
64 Escosura, op. cit., pp. 31-32; and in Ilustración Española y Americana, xx (1876), 90.
65 Cf. Cascales y Muñoz, J. de E., p. 310.
66 In Ilustración Española y Americana, xx (1876), p. 170.
67 Cf. Cascales y Muñoz, op. cit., pp. 283, 285, 289, and especially p. 88.
68 Solís, op. cit., pp. 181-182; Ferrer del Río, in Obras poéticas (1884), p. 16; Escosura, in Obras poéticas, p. 34.
69 See his letter written from prison, August 7, 1834. Published by Cascales y Muñoz in Revue Hispanique, xxiii, 54, and Solis, op. cit., p. 129.
70 In addition to the well-known exile to Cuéllar (end of 1833 and beginning of 1834) Espronceda was apparently exiled again in September, 1834, as revealed in another letter, cf. Cascales y Muñoz, ibid., p. 55.
71 See his essay El ministerio Mendizábal, of which Solis prints a résumé, op. cit., pp. 149-151.
72 Cf. Cascales y Muñoz, ibid., pp. 56-57; Ferrer del Río, in Obras poéticas (1884), p. 15.
73 Cascales y Muñoz, J. de E., p. 146. Cf. Fitzmaurice-Kelly in MLR, iv, 29-30: “His literary success seems to have encouraged and steadied Espronceda . . . All traces of the old revolutionary had vanished. . . .”
74 Escosura, in Obras poéticas (1884), p. 30.
75 Cf. Le Gentil, op. cit., p. 115.
76 Cf. Solís, op. cit., Chap. viii, esp. p. 196.
77 In Ilustración Española y Americana, xx (1876), no. xxiv, p. 431.
78 “It is extremely difficult to penetrate through his armour of affectations, of indifference, cynicism, and pessimistic humour to the real man, who is genuine, if not deep.” Fitzmaurice-Kelly, ibid., p. 34.
79 “En mi sentir, Espronceda 'se exageró' a sí mismo, como fué uso entre románticos, pero no 'se mintió' o desalmó totalmente.” Domenchina, Obras . . . de Espronceda, Ed. Aguilar, 1942, p. 48.
80 “Como patriota, la espada y la lengua de Espronceda marcharon siempre unidas en defensa de los intereses y de los derechos del pueblo.” Joaquín María López, in his funeral oration, printed in Obras poéticas (1884), pp. 72-73. “Pueblo” has here the meaning “common people,” just as in our author's Dos de mayo.
81 In the famous passage describing Don Félix de Montemar (beginning “Segundo Don Juan Tenorio”) we find these lines:
Al atrevido estudiante
Le señalan entre mil;
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Que hasta en sus crímenes mismos,
En su impiedad y altiveza
Pone un sello de grandeza
Don Félix de Montemar
We shall soon see that Don Félix is the “ideal” of Espronceda's pose.
82 His friend Ros de Olano, writing in La Revista de España, de Indias, y del Estrangero, i, 514-515, says, addressing the shades of Espronceda and Teresa:
. . . recuerdo todos los detalles, el sitio y la hora en que os vi juntos la primera vez. Teresa llevaba un muy sencillo vestido morado, y un velo blanco: los hombres se paraban á admirarla, los niños la enseñaban á sus madres, y las madres los reprendían con desden. Tú, mi buen amigo, tropezabas 6 dabas con el codo á todo el mundo, y la osadía de tu aspecto parecía retar á los transeuntes, las mugeres no tenían á insulto tu mirada.
83 In Obras poéticas (1884), p. 36.
84 Ibid., pp. 24-25.
85 Ibid., p. 73; also in Solís, op. cit., p. 248.
86 Ibid., p. 34.
87 Ibid., p. 38.
88 Cf. Northup, op. cit., pp. xvii-xviii.
89 Valera, Florilegio de poesías castellanas del siglo XIX, v, 204.
90 Fitzmaurice-Kelly, in MLR, iv, 33.
91 The passage is in Parte cuarta, Obras poéticas (1884), pp. 306-308.