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Page 2
J. F-K.
PS. Had they reached me in time, the following two items would have
been included in the respective sections of the foregoing summary
bibliography: _Poes�as originales de Fray Luis de Le�n_, ed. F. de
On�s, San Jos� de Costa Rica, 1920; Ad. Coster, _Notes pour une
�dition des po�sies de Luis de Le�n_ in the _Revue hispanique_ (1919),
vol. XLVI, pp. 193-248.
I
We are all of us familiar with the process of 'whitewashing'
historical characters. We are past being surprised at finding Tiberius
portrayed as an austere and melancholy recluse, Henry VIII pictured as
a pietistic sentimentalist with a pedantic respect for the letter of
the law, and Napoleon depicted as a romantic idealist, seeking to
impose the Social Contract on an immature, reluctant Europe. Though
the 'whitewashing' method is probably not less paradoxical than the
opposite system, it makes a stronger and wider appeal, inasmuch as it
implies a more amiable attitude towards life, and is more consonant
with a flattering conception of the possibilities of human nature. A
prosaic narrative of established facts does not immediately recommend
itself to the average man. Possibly few have existed who were so good
and so great that they can afford to have the whole truth told about
them. At any rate, it is easier to convey a picturesque general
impression than to collect all the available evidence with the
untiring persistence of a model detective and to present it with the
impartial acumen of a competent judge. Moreover, the inertia of
pre-existing opinion has to be overcome. Once readers have been
accustomed to accept as absolutely authentic an idealized conventional
portrait of a man of genius, it is difficult to induce them to abandon
it for a more realistic likeness. In the interest of historical truth,
however, the attempt must be made. We are sometimes told that
'historical truth can afford to wait'. That may be true; but it has
waited for nearly four centuries, and, if it be divulged in English
now, the revelation lays us open to no reasonable charge of
indiscretion or indecent haste.
It may be that the name of Luis de Leon is comparatively unknown
outside the small group of those who are regarded as specialists.
Luis de Leon is nothing like so famous as Cervantes, as Lope de Vega,
as Tirso de Molina, as Ruiz de Alarcon, and as Calderon, whose names,
if not their works, are familiar to the laity. This is one of chance's
unjust caprices. With the single exception of Cervantes perhaps no
figure in the annals of Spanish literature deserves to be more
celebrated than Luis de Leon. He was great in verse, great in prose,
great in mysticism, great in intellectual force and moral courage.
Many may recall him as the hero of a story--possibly apocryphal--in
which he figures as returning to his professorial chair after an
absence of over four years (passed in the prison-cells of the
Inquisition) and beginning his exordium to his students with the
imperturbable remark: 'We were saying yesterday.' Mainly on this
uncertain basis is constructed the current legend that Luis de Leon
was a bloodless philosopher, incapable of resentment, and, indeed,
without a touch of human weakness in his aloof and lofty nature. His
works do not lend colour to this presentation of the man, nor do the
ascertainable details of his chequered career. The conception of Luis
de Leon as a meek spirit, an unresisting victim of malignant
persecution, is not the sole view tenable of a complex character.
However, the recorded facts may be trusted to speak for themselves.
II
What was Luis de Leon's full name? Was it Luis Ponce de Leon? So it
would appear from the summarized results of P. Mendez printed in the
_Revista Agustiniana_.[1] The point is not without interest, for Ponce
de Leon is one of the great historic names of Spain. If Luis de Leon
was entitled to use it, he appears not to have exercised his right,
for in the report of his first trial[2] he consistently employs some
such simple formula as:--'El maestro fray Luis de Leon... digo'.[3]
The omission of the name 'Ponce' during proceedings extending over
more than four years can scarcely be accidental. It may, however, have
been due to monastic humility,[4] or to simple prudence: a desire not
to provoke opponents who declared that Luis de Leon had Jewish blood
in his veins.[5] Whether this assertion, a serious one in
sixteenth-century Spain, had any foundation in fact is disputed. It
is apparently certain that Luis de Leon's great-grandfather married a
Leonor de Villanueva, who is reported to have confessed to practising
Jewish rites and to have been duly condemned by the Inquisition in
1513 or thereabouts.[6] This does not go to the root of the matter,
for Leonor de Villanueva is alleged to have been Lope de Leon's second
wife. His first wife is stated to have been Leonor Sanchez de
Olivares, a lady of unquestioned orthodoxy, and mother of Gomez de
Leon,[7] the future grandfather of the Luis de Leon with whom we are
concerned here. If this statement be correct,[8] obviously there can
be no ground for asserting that Luis de Leon was of Jewish blood. But
it must in candour be admitted that the point is not wholly clear from
doubt.[9]
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