Page images
PDF
EPUB

But weak, old, tottering, gasping for my breath,
In sleep, in sickness, in the pangs of death,
Still could I serve my Prince, his youth could turn
To high and mighty things, becoming him to learn.
Who lives must die,-yet dying we may give
Of courage proofs, and lessons how to live;
And, though these limbs no longer have the force
To break the lance, or urge the panting horse,
The Prince may read, and kindle as he reads,
My written actions and recorded deeds.
Achievements past, now crown'd with endless fame,
Shall more than present might his soul inflame;
Se shall our King and so the world allow,

[Lozano steps forward to interrupt Diego. That none on earth deserves this charge" (p. 68–70. vol. ii.) This bold language occasioned the interference of the King to prevent further irritation; but Count Lozano was not to be appeased, and a very angry dialogue ensues, during which, he gives a blow to the infirm and aged Lainez, and which gross affront is the basis on which the whole structure of the play is raised. The extract we are proceeding to make, terminates with the King's calling for his guard, and issuing orders for the seizure of the aggressor.

[ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors]

Forbear, my Lords!-your King forbids you speak.

CRIT. REV. VOL. V. Jan. 1817.

C

Dieg. Ay! viejo desdichado!

"Dieg. Dexadme!

King. What now!

King. Ah, why this contest seek?

"Count. Then hands for me, and with a blow, attest

The angry thoughts my tongue so ill supprest..
"Per. Alas, forbear!

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

[Strikes Diego.

Diego. Oh! wretched helpless age!
King. What ho a guard!" (p. 70—71, vol. ii.)

Much as we admire the general spirit, taste, and freedom, of the translation, we must, in this part of it, object to the carelessness and want of judgment with which it is executed. It will appear that, according to the original, there are fifteen distinct interlocutions short, it is true, but agreeable to the natural expression of those bursts of passion by which the minds of the parties were overpowered; yet in the translation there are only seven speeches. The consequence of these unjustifiable variations is, that the animating principle of the whole is lost. Although, as we have stated, the foundation of the story is the intemperate blow given by the Count, and with the additional insult of this wound being inflicted on the honour of the suf ferer in the presence of the monarch; yet, looking to the translation, no violent provocation seems to have produced it; but in the original, a charge is made which appears almost to justify the outrage of the haughty nobleman, "Recibes engaño," is an accusation of falsehood: "You listen," says Lainez to the King, "to a lie;" and immediately afterwards follows the "Yo digo" of the Count, and subsequently the "No dices" of Lainez, a second contradiction; and it was not until these taunts were uttered, that the impatience and indignation of Lozano exceeded all bounds of restraint, and the foul act was committed which occasioned the death of the parent of Ximena. The explanation we have now given, we have the rather introduced in vindication of Guillen de Castro, who, according to the translator, would have grounded his work on an incident in a Spanish court, the centre of decorum, upon a kind of pugilistic degradation almost unsought and unprovoked, and wholly inconsistent with the chivalrous character of the times in which he lived, and with the refined courtesy of the country to which he belonged.

In the second scene Diego incites his son Rodrigo to revenge the blow inflicted by Lozano, on which the latter takes the earliest opportunity of challenging this nobleman; a duel ensues, and the Count is killed.

The next act opens with the appearance, of King Fer

nando, who is informed by Arrias and Peranzules that Rodrigo, sword in hand, had eluded, or rather defied the officers of justice. Subsequently, while Ximena is confessing to her sister Elvira her love for Rodrigo, thinking no other present, he throws himself at her feet, and offers her his dagger to stab the murderer of her father. He then relates with simplicity and feeling the cause of the quarrel, and describes the conflict in his breast between honour and affection. She ascribes his audacity to confidence in her love, which she admits, however, to be too well-founded. Her honour, she says, will induce her to bring the assassin of her father to justice; but she confesses her hope that she may not be successful, and they part in mutual despair.

The story proceeds with the victory obtained by the Cid over a Moorish King, who attends as a prisoner; on which occasion the royal Fernando bestows on the conqueror the title of the Cid, signifying in Arabic "My Lord,”—a distinction which had been applied to him by his respectful captive. Ximena continues her suit for the punishment of her father's murderer, which concludes the second act, excepting a brief under-plot, connected with the affection of the Infanta Doña Urraca for the Cid, who discovers the attentive regards between the hero and his fair accuser. At this period the Cid combats with a giant, who had claimed the person and property of Ximena; and on the report of the death of Rodrigo in that conflict, Ximena affects to rejoice in the event, yet when it is confirmed, she acknowledges her love, and intreats the King to allow her to surrender her property, but to refuse her hand to the conqueror. The words have scarcely passed her lips, when the Cid appears, recounts his victory over the monster, and solicits marriage with Ximena. The King grants his petition, and the lady, with affected reluctance, consents; observing, that it is in obedience to the commands of Heaven.

Such is the first part of the Mocedades del Cid; and Lord Holland remarks, in his comparative view of the merits of the Spaniard and his French imitator, that had the fatter written nothing but the Cid, he would not have excelled, perhaps he would scarcely have equalled in repute, the former as a poet; but it is added, that he would have shewn in that single piece more powers of reasoning, and more accuracy of taste and judgment, than are to be found in the original.

There were two tragedies on the subject chosen by Corneille: the one is that of G. de Castro, which we have detailed, and the other is El Henrador de su Padre, of Inan Bauptista de Diamante; and these were within the reach of the French poet, when, as one of the five writers for Cardinal Richelieu, and supposed to be inferior to his companions, he undertook to write this play on which his reputation has been founded. Voltaire remarks, that as many of the scenes were taken from the latter as the former; and he observes elsewhere, that "Tous les sentimens genereux et tendres sont dans ces deux originaux."

As

The French copyist has not always exercised that judgment which is attributed to him in the work before us. an instance, we will only quote a single passage of absurd exaggeration which Corneille has been imprudent enough to translate.

"Su sangre sennor que en humo

Su sentimento explicava
Por la boca que la vierté
De verse alli derrimada

Por otro que por su rey."

But we may, perhaps, be more astonished at the numerous occasions on which Corneille exercised his judgment, than at those very few situations in which it was not employed; for when he wrote the Cid, the Spaniards possessed on all the theatres of Europe the same influence they enjoyed in political affairs, and their taste prevailed even in Italy, adorned by the Aminta and Pastor Fido, and which country having been the earliest to cultivate the arts, we might have imagined would rather have given the law to literature, than have condescended to receive it from Spain.

It was not surprising that Corneille, who first gave passion, strength, and dignity, to the French stage, should have excited much enmity in the minds of his contemporaries. Anxious to strip him of the plumage with which he was adorned, they endeavoured to attribute to G. de Castro all the merit he had acquired, and calling up the ghost of the Spaniard from the shades; they represented him as uttering this indignant complaint:

[ocr errors]

Ingrat rends-moi mon Cid jusques au dernier mot,
Apres tu connoitras, corneille deplumée,

Que l'esprit le plus vain est souvent le plus sot,
Et qu'enfin tu me dois toute ta renommée.”

The author concludes with a very brief notice of the other productions of Guillen de Castro. Of the second part of the Macedades del Cid he says, that it excites little interest, and abounds in improbable and unconnected events; and he, in a Spanish quotation, introduces circumstances attending the assassination of the King of Castille which he would not be guilty of the indelicacy of translating.

Besides the preceding plays, he wrote The Maravillas de Babilonia, which is founded on the story of Nebuchadnezzar, where he is brought with his horns and cloven feet before the audience, and made to graze and chew the cud upon the stage. In the Caballero Bobo, we have an English Prince, who, from his resemblance to the heir of Hungary, is murdered by mistake, but his death is avenged by the British ambassador, at the head of an army of our countrymen. In the Amor Constante there are needless slaughters, exposures of dead bodies, and unnatural and forced situations; but for these defects we have a compensation in the pathetic tenderness of the dialogues between Nicida and Zelauro. La Piedad ou la Justicia is a very pitiful performance; but the last play noticed, under the satirical title of Allá van leyes donde quieren Reyes, or "laws will twist where Monarchs list," is lively in the dialogue, and occasionally poetical in the language. We might imagine, that in a country so despotic as Spain, a play even with the title we have last named, would not be allowed to be represented; but G. de Castro lived at a period when a considerable portion of liberty was enjoyed by that country, and the superiority it had attained over other nations was to be ascribed to those energies which liberty alone can produce; yet it so happens, from what cause we do not pretend to determine, that, to a late date, the Spaniards were less cautious than any other people in respect to the popular effect of their dramatic representations; and even the pride and vigilance of the priesthood appears in such circumstances to be equally improvident. We well remember being at Aranjuez during the periodical residence of the court at that place, when a representation was given in a puppet-show of a priest in his canonicals and the other peculiarities of his attire, who in this full trim was thrown up into the air repeatedly by a raging bull, to the great delight and entertainment of the spectators, who expressed their exultation during the sufferings of the mangled, tattered, and stripped ecclesiastic, in loud peals of applause.

The noble author does not seem to be aware, that besides

« PreviousContinue »