The Story of Seville

Association

dignified form, so long continue and survive in manners, ways of thinking, intellectual culture

ological writer, and the Moriscoes acclaimed the sagacious El Begi, 'whose knowledge was a marvel.' Many Moorish scribes laboured in the city before San Fernando regai

ing German printers set up presses in Seville, and that books, such

rsede manuscript. In the Cathedral Library of Seville is the great Bible of Pedro de Pampeluna, in two volumes. It was transcribed for Alfonso

nt of machinery more books were produced, and they came into the hands of the people,

problems, are often produced. Among the playwrights of Spain the name of Lope de Rueda is held in reverence, for it was he who opened the way for them. 'The real father of the Spanish theatre' was a native of Sevi

as curtain and 'back sheet.' Between the acts a few singers sang without any instrumental accompaniment. With such primitive paraphern

seized by Moorish pirates and taken prisoner with Cervantes to Algiers. De Bercerra is known for his translation of Giovanni della Casa's Il Galateo

possessing the most cultured circle of writers and artists in the whole of Spain. Fernando de Herrera, born in 1534, in Seville, holds a high position among Spanish poets. His Canción á Lepanto, a p

n that language, which might rival the most famous ancient authors in thought and expression. He possessed a moderate knowledge of Greek.' The prose writings of 'the divine Herrera'

ual'; he was enamoured of Eliodora, Countess of Gelves. This adoration was of the nature of that manifested by Dante for Beatrice. The poet calls his divinity 'L

zquez, who married Pacheco's daughter, were frequenters of the Canon's hospitable house. It was Pacheco who collected and published Herrera's poems, under the patronage of the Condé d'Olivarez, and to him we owe the preservation of some wonderful fragments of a poem on the art of painting, composed by Pablo de Céspedes. These selections were quoted by Pacheco i

on art, Arte de la Pintura, was published in 1649. It is anecdotal, technical and historical, and displays the credulity of the writer in regard

r patio, surrounded by busts, portions of antique sculpture, and two statues of Athena. In the centre is a fountain. The casa was designed by Moorish artists, early in the sixteenth century, for Don Pedro Enriquez, and his wife Do?a Catalina de

abinets of coins and medals, and cases containing manuscripts. He was an amateur painter, a patron of the fine arts, and the encourager of struggling genius. Pedro de Madrazo, in his Sevilla y Cadiz, states that 'the Casa Pila

ure of Gothic, Moorish, and Renaissance designs, adorned with azulejos, the decorations bein

que character of the stucco work at a comparatively late date, and the profuse use of azulejos or coloured tiles. It is ... in and about the splendid staircase that this charming tile lini

We can picture Cervantes relating the story of his imprisonment in Algiers, or diverting the company with anecdotes of the thieves and sharpers of Seville, whose exploits are recorded in his novel of Rinconete y Cortadillo. Góngora, the poet, whose affectations and 'Gongorisms' offended George Henry Lewes, probably read his verses to a critical audience in the salon. Wit vied with wit, scho

a position as chamberlain to Cardinal Julio Aquaviva at Rome; but he was not long in Italy. The love of adventure inspired him to enlist in the expedition force sent by Philip II. against Selim the Grand Turk. At the famous

ative land, he joined his mother and sister at Madrid, and there he led a studious life for three years. His fighting days were at an end. He had seen strange things in foreign lands, and greatly enriched his store of experience of life. Henceforward he gave o

dramatist continued to produce plays. He sought an appointment as Accountant-General of the new kingdom of Granada, or as Governor of Secomusco in Guatemala, or as Paymaster of the galleys at Cartagena, or as Corregidor in La Paz. His application was unnoticed, and it was not until 1808 that the document was unearthed. It is a story of hardship, neglect and disappointment. The soldier who had lost an arm in combat with his country's foes, the genius whose name was to reach the far ends of the civilised world, was forced to go begging fo

honour of St. Hyacinthus. He appears to have earned his living at this period as a tax-gatherer. Sometimes he was to be found at Pacheco's house, and

sted it to the hands of one Simon Freire, as his agent. Freire became bankrupt, and fled from Spain. This involved Cervantes in a debt to the crown, for which, being unable to pay, he was thrown into prison. Having reduced the amount by what he recovered from the

r that he finished the first part of Don Quixote de la Mancha. The great romance was partly written during Cervantes' imprisonment in La Mancha. There are three versions of the circumstances that brought about his confinement. One account is that Cervantes made himself unpop

uthor was not relieved of the burden of poverty. Fame sounded his name far and wide. But he had sold the copyright of his romance. And although his reputation was established beyond all doubt, he does not appear to have been in a position to obtain worthier remuneration for his labours

uthentic details of his existence,' writes Prescott, 'the deficiency ha

ixty-ninth year of his age. After a brief illness, the genius

by Cervantes in his novel, La Espa?ola Inglesa ('The Spanish-English Lady'). This novela relates the a

who wrote under the nom de plume of Fernán Caballero. This gifted authoress wrote several novels of social life in Spain, in which she did not flinch from attacking faulty institutions. She had even the courage to condemn the na

imes ranked next to Cervantes, lived in the parish of San

in August 1809. In

e eldest a fine woman, the youngest pretty, but not so good a figure as Donna Josepha. The freedom of manner, which is general here, astonished me not a little; and in the course

ess of her hair, measuring about three feet in length

e name of Leucadio Doblado. His reminiscences should be read for the pictures of Sevillian society,

ks upon Spanish places and people. The author of Mademoiselle de Maupin excels in his descriptions of Seville, its monuments, paintings, and i

ary, and it was fortunate for Borrow that the Inquisition days were of the past. Otherwise, he would have suffered in the manner of the hapless Lutherans of Ponce de León's time. As it was, the heretical colporteur had seventy-six copies of the New Testament confiscated. The books had been placed in the keeping of

greater part of each day in study, or in that half-dreamy state of inactivity which is the natural effect of the influence of a warm climate. There was little in the charact

Bohemian Borrow. He loved 'the wind on the heath,' the song of the waves on the Norfolk coast, the purple sierras of Spain, and the company of those children of nature, the Kaulos of Britain and the Zincalis of Ca

e of the Roman Catholic Church, Cardina

Mozart laid the scene of his Don Juan and Figaro in the city. Bizet's Carmen is concerned with Seville; and most famous of all in local

isition times were able to publish any works save those of theology, church history, or devotion. But we must remember that Pacheco was a cleric, that Góngora was a priest, and that Rioja held a post in th

that bold spirits dared to express innovating opinion. The greatest writer could scarcely subsist upon the earnings of his pen. He was forced, as in the case of Cervantes, Caldero

nd the arts. Not only were Bibles burnt publicly in Seville and elsewhere, but secular books, treating upon many subjects, were thrown to the flames, in the height of the Inquisition fanaticism. At the end of the fifteenth century six thousand volumes were thus destroyed at Salamanca. Such wanton acts contributed to the causes that brought the downfall of Spain. When Córdova, Granada and Seville were under

ound favour with influential persons, and so contrived to save himself from persecution. Queen Isabella had lessons from the learned Lebrixa, who may be called the Erasmus of Spain. But the royal tutor narrowly escaped the awful punishments of the Holy Tribunal,

I was condemned for impiety, because, being no divine but a mere grammarian, I presumed to treat of theological subjects. If a person endeavour to restore the purity of the sacred

cruel pains, from saying what he thinks, though he express himself with the utmost respect for religion! to forbid him to write in his closet or in the solitude of a prison! to speak to himself, or even to think! On

o expound religion. He claims that liberty of inquiry and of speech which belongs to every

arlos IV. instructed his Prime Minister to inform the heads of universities that 'what His Majesty wanted was not philosophers, but loyal subjects

that Emilia Pardo Bazan, a modern Spanish writer, should say: 'Perhaps our public is indifferent to literature, especially to printed literature, for what is represented

of modern life and manners. Valdes and Galdos are social influences. Their books are eagerly re