Читать книгу: «The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 12, No. 73, November, 1863», страница 17
REVIEWS AND LITERARY NOTICES
History of Spanish Literature. By GEORGE TICKNOR. In Three Volumes. Third American Edition, corrected and enlarged. Boston: Ticknor & Fields.
The first edition of this work was published in 1849, in three volumes octavo, and it is hardly necessary for us to add, that it was received with very great favor both at home and abroad. Indeed, we may go farther, and say that it was received with the highest favor by those who were best qualified to pronounce upon its merits. The audience which it addressed was small at home, and not numerous anywhere; for the literature of Spain, in general, does not present strong attractions to those who are not natives of the Peninsula. In our country, at the time of its publication, there was hardly a man competent to examine and criticize it; and in Europe, outside of Spain itself, the number of thorough Spanish scholars was and is but small, and of these a large proportion is found in Germany. But by these, whether in Germany, France, or England, Mr. Ticknor's History was received with a generous and hearty admiration which must have been to him as authentic a token of the worth of his book as the voice of posterity itself. But, of course, it was exposed to the severest trial in Spain, the people of which are intensely national, loving their literature, like everything else which belongs to them, with a passionate and exclusive love, and not disposed to treat with any tenderness a foreign writer who should lay an incompetent hand upon any of their great writers, though in a friendly and liberal spirit. But by the scholars and men of letters in Spain it was greeted with a kindliness of welcome which nothing but the most substantial excellence could have assured. Universal assent to the views of a foreigner and a Protestant was not to be expected: this or that particular judgment was questioned; but no one said, or could say, that Mr. Ticknor's History was superficial, or hastily prepared, or prejudiced, or wanting in due proportions. On the other hand, a most hearty tribute of admiration was paid to its thorough learning, its minute and patient research, its accurate judgments, its candid temper and generous spirit. Cultivated Spaniards were amazed that a foreigner had so thoroughly traced the stream of their literature from its fountain-heads, omitting nothing, overlooking nothing, and doing justice to all.
Such a work could never attain any very wide popularity, and this from the nature of its subject. To the general reader books about books are never so attractive as histories and biographies, which deal with the doings of men, and glow with the warmth of human interests. But every man of literary taste, though but superficially acquainted with Spanish literature, could recognize the merits of Mr. Ticknor's work, its philosophical spirit, its lucid arrangement, its elegant and judicious criticisms, and its neat, correct, and accurate style. He could not fail to see that the works of Bouterwek and Sismondi were, by comparison, merely a series of graceful sketches, with no claim to be called a complete and thorough history. It took its place at once as the highest authority in any language upon the subject of which it treated, as the very first book which everybody would consult who wanted any information upon that subject.
The present edition of the "History of Spanish Literature" is by no means identical with those which have preceded it. It omits nearly the whole of the inedited, primitive Castilian poems which have heretofore filled about seventy pages at the end of the last volume; and in other parts of the work a corresponding, and even more than a corresponding, amount of new matter has been introduced, which will, it is believed, be accounted of greater interest than the early poetry it displaces. These additions and changes have been derived from very various sources. In the first place, Mr. Ticknor was in Europe himself in 1856 and 1857, and visited the principal libraries, public and private, in England, France, Germany, and Italy, in which any considerable collection of Spanish books was to be found, and by examination of these supplied any wants there might be in his own very ample stores. In the second place, his History has been translated into German and Spanish, the former version being illustrated with notes by Dr. Ferdinand Wolf, perhaps the best Spanish scholar in Germany, and the latter by Don Pascual de Gayangos, one of the best scholars in Spain. From the results of the labors of these distinguished annotators Mr. Ticknor has taken—with generous acknowledgment—everything which, in his judgment, could add value, interest, or completeness to the present revised edition. And lastly, in the period between the publication of the first edition and the present time much has been done for the illustration of Spanish literature, both in the Peninsula and out of it. This is due in part to the interest in the subject which Mr. Ticknor himself awakened; and in Spain it is one of the consequences of the rapid progress in material development and vital energy which that country has been making during the last fifteen years. New lives of some of its principal writers have been published, and new editions of their works have been prepared. From all these sources a very ample supply of new materials has been derived, so that, while the work remains substantially the same in plan, outline, and spirit, there are hardly three consecutive pages in it which do not contain additions and improvements. We will briefly mention a few of the more prominent of these.
In the first volume, pages 446-455, the life of Garcilasso de la Vega is almost entirely rewritten from materials found in a recent biography by Don Eustaquio Navarrete, which Mr. Ticknor pronounces "an important contribution to Spanish literary history." The writer is the son of the learned Don Martin Navarrete.
In the second volume, pages 75-81, many new and interesting facts are stated in regard to the life of Luis de Leon, derived from a recently published report of the entire official record of his trial before the Inquisition, of which Mr. Ticknor says that it is "by far the most important authentic statement known to me respecting the treatment of men of letters who were accused before that formidable tribunal, and probably the most curious and important one in existence, whether in manuscript or in print. Its multitudinous documents fill more than nine hundred pages, everywhere teeming with instruction and warning on the subject of ecclesiastical usurpations, and the noiseless, cold, subtle means by which they crush the intellectual freedom and manly culture of a people."
In the same volume, pages 118-119, some new and interesting facts are stated which prove beyond a doubt, that Lope de Vega was actuated by ungenerous feelings towards his great contemporary, Cervantes. The evidence is found in some autograph letters of Lope, extracts from which were made by Duran, and are now published by Von Schack, an excellent Spanish scholar.
In the same volume, page 191, is a copy of the will of Lope de Vega, recently discovered, and obtained from the late Lord Holland.
In the same volume, pages 354-357, is a learned bibliographical note upon the publication and various editions of the plays of Calderon.
In the third volume, Appendix B., pages 408-414, is a learned bibliographical note on the Romanceros.
In the same volume, Appendix C., pages 419-422, is an elaborate note on the Centon Epistolario, in reply to an article by the Marques de Pidal.
In the same volume, Appendix D., pages 432-434, is a new postscript on the clever literary forgery, El Buscapié.
At the close of the third volume there are seven pages giving a brief and condensed account of the several works connected with Spanish literature which have been published within two or three years past, and since the stereotype plates for the present work were cast.
The present edition is in a duodecimo, instead of an octavo form, and is sold at a less price than the previous ones.
In the closing sentences of the preface to this edition, Mr. Ticknor says: "Its preparation has been a pleasant task, scattered lightly over the years that have elapsed since the first edition of this work was published, and that have been passed, like the rest of my life, almost entirely among my own books. That I shall ever recur to this task again, for the purpose of further changes or additions, is not at all probable. My accumulated years forbid any such anticipation; and therefore, with whatever of regret I may part from what has entered into the happiness of so considerable a portion of my life, I feel that now I part from it for the last time. Extremum hoc munus habeto." This is a very natural feeling, and gracefully expressed; but whatever of sadness there may be in parting from a book which has so long been a constant resource, a daily companion, may in this case be tempered by the thought that the work, as now dismissed, is so well founded, so symmetrically proportioned, so firmly built, as to defy the sharpest criticism—that of Time itself.
