No CrossRef data available.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
Guillén de Castro in his Mocedades del Cid presents us with a characterization of his hero which differs radically from the Cid of the Romancero and the Crónicas. He transforms the renowned medieval warrior into a courtly knight. Ernest Mérimée in the Première Partie des Mocedades del Cid de Guillen de Castro (Toulouse, 1890, page cvi) takes note of the metamorphosis and attributes it to the playwright's inventive genius. But in his brochure, The Cid Theme in France in 1600 (Minneapolis, 1920), Gustave L. Van Robsbroeck casts some doubt on this point of view by bringing to light a novel by Antoine Du Périer, La Eayne et l'Amour d'Arnoul et de Clayremonde (Paris, 1600), containing features similar to the Castro story including the element of courtliness, which, of course, obviously antedate the play. His conclusion is that “There existed a common source—probably a Spanish source—for both the Eayne et L'Amour d'Arnoul et de Clayremonde and Las Mocedades del Cid” (p. 15). Barbara Matulka further enlarges on the subject in her The Cid as a Courtly Hero: from Amadis to Corneille (New York, 1928, pp. 6–40). She notes an early treatment of the courtly Cid theme in Feliciano de Silva's Florisel de Niquea (1532–51) representing books x, xi, and xii of the Amadis series, and cites Jimenez de Ayllon's Los Famosos y Herôicos Hechos del Invencible Cavallero el Cid Ruy Diaz de Bivar (1568) to show that the Cid had been introduced to court prior to the Mocedades and to point out that Ayllon's epic contains situations and details similar to those found in the play. These works, Miss Matulka claims, have been influential through intermediary links between them and our dramatic piece. There is no question but that she is partially correct in her contention, and this we shall endeavor to prove through the discussion of materials which she failed to utilize at the time she made her investigation.
Note 1 in page 786 Cf. Gli Ecaiommiii, ovver? Cento Novelle di Gio. Battista Giraldi Cintio (Novellieri Italiani, vi) (Firenze, 1833, 1855–59).
Note 2 in page 786 The full story may be found in Books x, xi, and XII of the Amadis series. 3 See Letterio di Francia, p. 62.
Note 1 in page 787 See La Roman en Prose de Tristan, ed. Loseth (Paris, 1891), pp. 41–42. Compare also the story of Ricciardetto and Fiordispina in Canto xxii of the Orlando Furioso. The theme, of course, goes all the way back to the concealment of Achilles.
Note 5 in page 787 In Dos Romances Anonimos del Siglo XVI (Madrid, 1917) Henry Thomas has conclusively proven that the ninth book of the Amadis series, dealing with Amadis de Grecia, was composed by Feliciano de Silva. See also H. Thomas, Spanish and Portuguese Romances of Chivalry (Cambridge, 1920), pp. 72–77.
Note 6 in page 787 Cf. Chapter XLI ff. I have made use of Hereberay's French translation, Le Huitème Livre d'Amadis de Gaule (Paris, 1555), in the Univ. of Chicago Library. As no translation of the Octavo Libro by Juan Diaz is in existence, this translation represents the second part of Book ix.
Note 7 in page 788 See G. Bertoni's L'Orlando Furioso e la Rinascenza a Ferrara (Modena, 1919), chapters entitled “Materia Cavalleresca Francese ”(pp. 91–110) and “Influssi di Poemi e Romanzi Italiani e Spagnuoli” (pp. 111–121). Consult also H. Thomas, op. cit., pp. 181–199.
Note 8 in page 788 On this point see Letterio di Francia, p. 64.
Note 9 in page 788 The play is in Obras de Lope de Vega, ed. Cotarelo y Mori (Madrid, 1918), v, 440–471. On the date see Cotarelo's introd., p. xxv.
Note 10 in page 789 See Ch. xv of Bk. xi of the series. As evidence of the influence of the Florisel de Niquea romance is the fact that Francisco de Leyva Ramirez de Arellano wrote a play called Amadis y Niquea, and Juan Pérez de Montalván Para Nosotros Amantes, para con Todos Hermanos with the alternative title Don Florisel de Niquea, while the Conde de Villa-mediana produced La Gloria de Niquea. See H. Thomas, pp. 78–79.
Note 11 in page 790 The play is in Obras de Lope de Vega, ed. Cotarelo y Mori (Madrid, 1917), iv, 74–107. On the problem of the date see Cotarelo's introd., p. vii. It is strange that Cotarelo y Mori, who rightly declares Las Burlas y Enredos de Benito to be a derivation from Giraldi's story, should forget about the Italian writer in discussing El Favor Agradecido, despite the fact that he insists that “ambas son iguales en el fondo, y en muchos espisodios” (v, xxv). See also E. S. Morby, “Gli Ecatommiti, El Favor Agradecido and Las Burlas y Enredes de Benito,” HR, x (1942), 325–328. S. G. Morley and C. Bruerton, The Chronology of Lope de Vega's Comedias (New York, 1940), p. 261, believe that the versification indicates that the play does not belong to Lope.
Nor are these the only plays known to derive from the Hecatommithi. Lope is indebted to it for the plots of at least a half dozen comedias—El Piadoso Veneciano, Servir a Senor Discrete, El Eijo Venturoso, El Mayordomo de la Duquesa de Amalfi, La Esclava de su Hijo, Cortesia en Espana. See A. Gasparetti, “Giovan Battista Giraldi e Lope de Vega,” Bull. Eisp., xxii (1930), 372–403; ?. H. Templin, “The Source of Lope de Vega's El Hijo Venturoso and Indirectly La Esclava de su Hijo,” HR, ii (1934), 345–348; J. G. Fucilla, “The Source of Lope de Vega's La Discordia en los Casados,” MLJ, xvii (1934), 280–283. Diego Agreda y Vargas draws two of his stories in his Novelas Morales (Madrid, 1620) from Deca ii, 2, and v, 7. Book iii, Ch. 6 of Cervantes' Los Trabajos de Persiles y Segismunda also comes from the Hecatommithi and the story is repeated by Zorrilla in El Caballero de Buena Memoria. Besides Italian editions the various Spanish imitators also had access to the translation by Luis Gaytán de Vozmediana, Primera Parte de las Cien Novelas de M. Juan Baptista Giraldo Cinthio (Toledo, 1590). See also E. Kohler, “Lope de Vega et Giraldi Cintio,” Mélanges 1945, II: Etudes littéraires (Fac. des Lettres de l'Univ. de Strasbourg, 1945), Fasc. 105, pp. 169–260.
Note 12 in page 791 The text of the play can be found in Obras de Guillên de Castro, ed. Juliá Martinez (Madrid, 1926), ii, 169–208.
Note 18 in page 792 Castro's friendship with Lope was also a factor in drawing him to his plays. To him Lope dedicated Las Almenas del Toro while Castro dedicated the Primera Parte of his Comedias (1621 ed.) to Marcela, Lope's daughter.
Note 14 in page 793 Œuvres de P. Corneille, ed. Marty Laveaux (Paris, 1862), ii, 95 (italics mine).
Note 15 in page 793 Besides the Hecalommilhi story Corneille might also be referring to plays containing the head and sword motif like La, Fidelle Tromperie by Gougenot, or the sword motif like De Ryer's Argenis et Poliarque, Mariet's Sophonisbe, Benserade's La Mort d'Achille, Bey's Céline et les Frères Rivaux, or the head motif like Scudéry's Le Prince Déguisé. See Matulka, op. cit., pp. 50–51. We may add that at least one of Corneille's contemporaries, Hardy, had already made use of the collection prior to appearance of Le Cid, drawing upon one of the stories for his Phraale. See H. C. Lancaster, The French Tragi-Comedy (Baltimore, 1907), p. 109. As to La Hayne et L'Amour d'Arnoul et de Clayremonde, it is difficult to determine whether it is a free adaptation of Florisel de Niquea or Giraldi's Deca ii, 1. It is likely that Du Périer knew both versions. In any case it appears to be an offshoot which was destined to have no discernible influence on the courtly Cid theme.