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Page 14
For a very full treatment and bibliography of the Don Juan Tenorio
legend see G.G. de B�votte, "La L�gende de Don Juan," Paris, 1911.
Also Farinelli, _Giornale Storico_, XXVII, and "Homenaje a Men�ndez
y Pelayo," Vol. I, p. 295; A.L. Stiefel, _Jahresberichte f�r neuere
deutsche Litteraturgeschichte_, 1898-1899, Vol. I, 7, pp. 74-79.
NOTES ON ESPRONCEDA'S VERSIFICATION
GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS
To enjoy the work of so musical an artist as Espronceda, the student
must be able to read his verse in the original. This cannot be done
without some knowledge of the rules which govern the writing of Spanish
poetry. It therefore becomes necessary to give some account of the
elementary principles of Spanish prosody. This is not the place for a
complete treatment of the subject: only so much will be attempted as is
necessary for the intelligent comprehension of our author's writings. A
knowledge of English prosody will hinder rather than help the student;
for the Spanish poet obeys very different laws from those which govern
the writer of English verse.
The two essentials of Spanish poetry are (1) a fixed number of syllables
in each verse (by verse we mean a single line of poetry); (2) a
rhythmical arrangement of the syllables within the verse. Rime and
assonance are hardly less important, but are not strictly speaking
essential.
SYLLABLE-COUNTING
FINAL SYLLABLES
When a verse is stressed on the final syllable, it is called a _verso
agudo_ or masculine verse.
When a verse is stressed on the next to the last syllable, it is called
a _verso llano_ or feminine verse.
When a verse is stressed on the second from the last syllable, the
antepenult, it is called a _verso esdr�julo_.
For the sake of convenience, the _verso llano_ is considered the normal
verse. Thus, in an eight-syllable verse of this type the final stress
always falls on the seventh syllable, in a six- syllable verse on the
fifth syllable, etc., always one short of the last. In the case of the
_verso agudo_, where the final stress falls on the final syllable, a
verse having actually seven syllables would nevertheless be counted as
having eight. One syllable is always added in counting the syllables of
a _verso agudo_, and, contrariwise, one is always subtracted from the
total number of actual syllables in a _verso esdr�julo_. These three
kinds of verses are frequently used together in the same strophe
(_copla_ or stanza) and held to be of equal length. Thus:
Turbios sus ojos,
Sus graves p�rpados
Flojos caer.
Theoretically these are all five-syllable verses. The first is a _verso
llano_, the normal verse. It alone has five syllables. The second is a
_verso esdr�julo_. It actually has six syllables, but theoretically is
held to have five. The third is a _verso agudo_. It actually has but
four syllables, but in theory is designated a five-syllable verse. All
three verses agree in having the final stress fall upon the fourth
syllable.
It would be simpler if, following the French custom, nothing after the
final stress were counted; but Spaniards prefer to consider normal
the verse of average length. It follows from this definition that a
monosyllabic verse is an impossibility in Spanish. Espronceda writes:
Leve,
Breve
S�n.
He is not here dropping from dissyllabic to monosyllabic verse, but the
last verse too must be considered a line of two syllables.
Espronceda never uses a measure of more than twelve syllables in the
selections included in this book. Serious poets never attempt anything
longer than a verse of sixteen syllables.
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