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The Image of Spain in American Literature, 1815-1865

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Miguel González-Gerth
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Extract

“Far, far away!” For the romantic imagination of Americans living in the second decade of the nineteenth century, these words identified, from the geographical viewpoint, Spain. To the average American, indeed to all but a few, Spain was as close to a terra incognita as there could exist in the Western World, a legendary land of old castles and beautiful landscapes inhabited by lovely dark-eyed maidens, engulfed by a warm climate, religious bigotry, and ignorance. But it was “far, far away,” and to the complacent inhabitants of a new and prosperous country which was politically stable and economically secure, Spain symbolized romantic adventure.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Inter-American Studies , Volume 4 , Issue 2 , April 1962 , pp. 257 - 272
Copyright
Copyright © University of Miami 1962

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References

1 Prescott Webb, Walter, The Great Frontier (Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, 1952), p. 363 Google Scholar.

2 In point of time the Port Folio (1801-1827) preceded the North American Review (hereafter referred to as NAR) but its quality and critical influence were not as prominent.

3 De Mille, George E., Literary Criticism in America (The Dial Press, New York, 1931) pp. 17–18 Google Scholar. The NAR had a direct predecessor, the Monthly Anthology and Roston Review (1803-1811).

4 It is interesting to note, in passing, that these three writers had already set thematic precedents for later writers more directly interested in Spain. For this see: Barlow's The Columbiad and Hasty Pudding (the Columbus and Spanish-American themes); Freneau's “The Beauties of Santa Cruz” and “The House of Night” (Spanish-American themes); Brown's novels (Gothicism).

5 DeMille, op. cit., p. 22.

6 Thoughts on the Poets (London, 1850). Quoted in William Ellery Leonard, Byron and Byronism in America (Columbia University Press, New York, 1907). For a detailed discussion of Byron's influence on American writers, see latter work.

7 Letter from Portland, December, 1826. (Cf. Samuel Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. (Houghton Mifflin Co., 1886, I, 95.) Quoted in Edith F. Helman, “Early Interest in Spanish in New England (1815-1835),” Híspanla, XXIX (August, 1946), 340.

8 Critical notice of A New Spanish Grammar by Mariano Cubi y Soler, NAR, XX (April, 1825), 450. Also quoted in Helman, op. cit., p. 339.

9 Review of a Grammar of the Spanish Language by Emanuel Del Mar, The United States Review and Literary Gazette, II (June, 1827), 231.

10 Mordecai Noah, Travels in England, France, Spain, and the Barhary States. (New York, 1819.)

11 (Alexander Slidell Mackenzie), A Year in Spain. (Boston, 1829).

12 This work was first published in Philadelphia.

13 Washington Irving, History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus. (New York, 1828.)

14 Washington Irving, A Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada. New York, 1829.)

15 Williams, Stanley T., The Spanish Background of American Literature. (Yale University Press, New Haven, 1955), I, 59Google Scholar.

16 Williams, op. cit., I, 84.

17 Winslow, Ola Elizabeth, “Books for the Lady Reader, 1820-1860,” in Romanticism in America, (edited by George Boas) (The Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore, 1940), p. 93 Google Scholar. Mrs. Felicia Hemans’ poems, many of Spanish theme, were a favorite showpiece.

18 The gentle reference to “Mr. Byron” was typical of nineteenth-century refinement in the upper circles. Cooper says in his Gleanings in Europe: France, “I had a classmate at college who was so ultra courtly in language that he never forgot to say Mr. Julius Caesar and Mr. Homer.” (Quoted in Van Wyck Brooks, The World of Washington Irving, E. P. Dutton, New York, 1950, p. 42.)

19 Much the same thing happened with European works as a vehicle of Spanish themes with respect to literatures other than American. See, for example, Robert C. Stephenson, “The English Source of Pushkin's Spanish Themes,” University of Texas Studies in English 1938, Austin, p. 85.

20 Men such as Irving, Ticknor, etc., were well aware of the interest of German scholars in Spanish literature. And British magazines often published articles on Spanish works. See, for example, “Early Narrative and Lyrical Poetry of Spain,” The Edinburgh Review, XXXIX (January 1824), 393.

21 Spaniards and Spanish-Americans, however, remained homogeneous to the New Englander for a long time. “The common opinion of Spain is mostly based upon the English notion … We have added to it some trifling improvements of our own, predicated upon our experience of the half-breed Indians and negroes in Mexico and South America whom we call ‘Spaniards.'” Severn Teackle Wallis, Glimpses of Spain (New York, 1849), p. 365. (Quoted in Williams, op. cit., p. 83.)

22 For a monumentally detailed study of these writers in connection with Hispanic culture, see Williams, op. cit., II.

23 Brooks, Van Wyck, The World of Washington Irving (E. P. Dutton, New York, 1950), p. 24 Google Scholar.

24 “Trait of Spanish Character,” NAR, V (May 1817), 30. (Quoted in Helman, op. tit., who attributes it to “Prescott Adams,”)

25 (Willard Phillips) “Events in Pernambuco,” NAR, V (July 1817), 226.

26 Boston, 1826.

27 NAR, XXV (July 1827), 183.

28 Ibid., XXVI (January’ 1828), 248.

29 Ibid., XXVII (October 1828), 524.

30 The Talisman for MDCCCXXIX, (New York), p. 43.

31 Ibid., p. 49.

32 Ibid., p. 158.

33 “On Seneca's borders, a neat little cot,” Poems on Various Subjects (New York, 1826).

34 Our Chronicle of ‘26, a Satirical Poem (Boston, 1827), p. 21.

35 Review of Colección de los viajes y Descubrimientos que Hicieron por Mar los Españoles desde Fines del Siglo XV, por Martin Fernández de Navarrete. NAR, XXIII (October 1825), 484.

36 NAR, XXIX (October 1829), 428.

37 Review of Storia dell'America, by Giuseppe Compagnoni, Conté di Segur. (Milano). NAR, XXVII (July 1828)), 30.

38 Review of Notes on Colombia, by an Officer of the United Army (Philadelphia, 1827). The United States Review and Literary Gazette, I (March 1827), 418.

39 Review of a Discourse Delivered at Plymouth, December 22, 1820, by Daniel Webster. NAR, XIV (July 1822), 21.

40 (Alexander Slidell Mackenzie), “The Navy.” NAR, XXX (April, 1830), 360.

41 (F. A. R. Barnard), “Education of the Deaf and Dumb.” NAR, XXXVIII (April, 1834), 307.

42 Review of Travels in Malta and Sicily…, by Andrew Bigelow. (Boston, 1832). NAR, XXXV (July, 1832), 233.

43 The Talisman for MDCCCXXX, (New York), p. 227.

44 Origin and Progress of the French Language,” NAR, XXXII (April, 1831), 277; “Defense of Poetry”, ibid., XXXIV (January, 1832), 56; “Spanish Devotional and Moral Poetry,” ibid., XXXIV (April, 1832), 217; “History of the Italian Language and Dialects,” ibid., XXXV (October, 1832), 283; “Spanish Language and Literature,” ibid., XXXVI (April, 1832), 316.

45 Poetry and Romance of the Italians,” NAR, XXXIII (July, 1831), 29.

46 NAR, XLV (July, 1837), 1.

47 Ibid., XXXIII (October, 1831), 506.

48 The Gentleman's Magazine, I (August, 1837), 140.

49 Miss H. F. Gould, “The Spanish Girl,” Poems (Boston, 1836).

50 Cheever, George B. (ed.) The American Common-Place Book of Poetry (Boston, 1831, pp. 303–304 Google Scholar.

51 New York, 1832.

52 Philadelphia, 1839.

53 New York, 1838.

54 New York, 1839.

55 NAR, LIV (April, 1842), 419.

56 Vol. XVII (October-December, 1845).

57 C. Edwards Lester, “Passage of the Straits of Gibraltar,” The Opal (New York, 1847), p. 231.

58 NAR, LXV (July, 1847), 201.

59 “A Salmagundi,” The United States Democratic Review, XXXVIII (December, 1856), 411.

60 “Life in Spain”, The Ladies’ Repository, XIV (March, 1854), 137.

61 “The Bible and Christianity,” The Ladies Repository, XIII (January, 1853), 36.

62 Friendship's Offering (Boston, 1851), p. 17.

63 NAR, LXXXIX (July, 1859), 270.

64 Literary notice, Harper's Magazine, XVIII (April, 1859), 270.

65 Quoted from The Poems of Maria Lowell (The Riverside Press, Cambridge, 1907), pp. 28-29.

66 NAR, LXXXVIII (January, 1859), 253.

67 (Martha Perry Lowe), The Olive and the Pine (Boston, 18595), p. 66.

68 (Thomas Fitch), “Nevada,” Harper's Magazine, XXXI (August, 1865), 319.

69 “California Gold. A song for the Occasion,” The United States Magazine and Democratic Review, XXV (October, 1849), 368.

70 See Rourke, Constance, American Humor (Doubleday Anchor Books, New York, 1953), p. 97 Google Scholar. (This was probably the play translated from the German of A. F. F. von Kotzebue by Richard B. Sheridan in England.)

71 Ibid., p. 107. (The complete title of this burlesque by John Brougham is Columbus el Filibustero. A new and audaciously original historico-plagiaristic, antenational, pre-patriotic and omni-local confusion of circumstances, running through two acts and four centuries.

72 Ibid., p. 100.