|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 1
I desire to thank Professors Rudolph Schevill, Karl Pietsch, and Milton
A. Buchanan for helpful suggestions, and the latter more particularly
for the loan of rare books. The vocabulary is almost entirely the
work of my wife Emily Cox Northup, whose collaboration is by no means
restricted to this portion of the book. More than to any other one
person I am indebted to Mr. Steven T. Byington of the staff of Ginn
and Company, by whose acute and scholarly observations I have often
profited.
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
THE LIFE OF ESPRONCEDA
THE WORKS OF ESPRONCEDA
"THE STUDENT OF SALAMANCA"
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
NOTES ON ESPRONCEDA'S VERSIFICATION
EL ESTUDIANTE DE SALAMANCA
CANCI�N DEL PIRATA
EL CANTO DEL COSACO
EL MENDIGO
SONETO
A TERESA
NOTES
VOCABULARY
INTRODUCTION
THE LIFE OF ESPRONCEDA
Don Jos� de Espronceda y Lara, Spain's foremost lyric poet of the
nineteenth century, was born on the 25th of March, 1808, the year of his
country's heroic revolt against the tyranny of Napoleon. His parents
were Lieutenant-Colonel Don Juan de Espronceda y Pimentel and Do�a Mar�a
del Carmen Delgado y Lara. Both were Andalusians of noble stock, and, as
we learn from official documents, were held to be Christians of clean
blood "without taint of Jews, heretics, Moors, or persons punished by
the Holy Inquisition, and who neither were nor had been engaged in mean
or low occupations, but in highly honorable ones." This couple of such
highly satisfactory antecedents had been married four years previously.
In 1804 Don Juan, a mature widower of fifty-three, was still mourning
his first wife when he obtained the hand of Do�a Mar�a, a young widow
whose first husband, a lieutenant in the same regiment, was recently
deceased. The marriage was satisfactory in a worldly way, for Do�a Mar�a
brought as a dower four hundred thousand reales to be added to the two
hundred thousand which Don Juan already possessed. By his first marriage
Don Juan had had a son, Don Jos� de Espronceda y Ramos, who became
ensign in his father's regiment, then studied in the Artillery School at
Segovia, and later entered the fashionable Guardia de Corps regiment.
He died in 1793 at the early age of twenty-one, soon after joining this
regiment. By the second marriage there were two other children, both of
whom died in infancy: Francisco, born in 1805, and Mar�a, born in 1807.
During the early months of 1808 the Bourbon cavalry regiment in which
Don Juan served was stationed in the little hamlet of Villafranca de los
Barros, Estremadura, and there the future poet was born. We do not know
where the mother and son found refuge during the stormy years which
followed. The father was about to begin the most active period of his
career. We learn from his service record that he won the grade of
colonel on the field of Bail�n; that a year later he recaptured the
cannon named Libertad at the battle of Consuegra (a feat which won
him the rank of brigadier), and fought gallantly at Talavera as a
brother-in-arms of the future Duke of Wellington. The mere enumeration
of the skirmishes and battles in which he participated would require
much space. In 1811 he distinguished himself at Medina Sidonia and
Chiclana, and sought promotion to the rank of field-marshal, which was
never granted. After the Peninsular War he seems to have been stationed
in Madrid between 1815 and 1818. His family were probably permanently
established in that city, for we know that mother and son resided
there during the time that the brigadier was doing garrison duty in
Guadalajara (1820-1828), and there is no evidence that they followed him
to Coru�a during his term of service in that city (1818-1820). Possibly
the old soldier preferred the freedom of barrack life, where his
authority was unquestioned, to the henpecked existence he led at home.
"Ella era �l y �l era ella," says Patricio de Escosura in speaking of
this couple; for Do�a Mar�a was something of a shrew. She was a good
business woman who combined energy with executive ability, as she later
proved by managing successfully a livery-stable business. But, however
formidable she may have been to her hostlers, her son Jos� found her
indulgent. He, the only surviving son of a mature couple, rapidly
developed into a _ni�o consentido_, the Spanish equivalent of a
spoiled child. Parallels are constantly being drawn between Byron and
Espronceda. It is a curious fact that both poets were reared by mothers
who were alternately indulgent and severe.
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|