Cervantes and the Cynics (El licenciado Vidriera and El coloquio de los perros)
1976; Liverpool University Press; Volume: 53; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/1475382762000353189
ISSN1469-3550
Autores Tópico(s)Early Modern Spanish Literature
ResumoClick to increase image sizeClick to decrease image sizeBSS Subject Index: CERVANTES SAAVEDRA, MIGUEL DE (1547–1616) NOVELAS EJEMPLARESCOLOQUIO DE LOS PERROS, EL [M. DE CERVANTES]LICENCIADO VIDRIERA, EL [M. DE CERVANTES]NOVELAS EJEMPLARES [M. DE CERVANTES] Notes 1. See Dana B. Drake, Cervantes: A Critical Bibliography. Vol. I, The Novelas Ejemplares (Virginia Polytechnic Institute 1968). 2. It is convenient to distinguish the character in his mad period by using the name Vidriera. 3. e.g. J. Casalduero, Sentido y forma de las Novelas ejemplares (2nd ed., Madrid 1962), 137–49; J. B. Avalle-Arce, Cervantes. Three Exemplary Novels (New York 1964), Introduction, 20–23; Frank P. Casa, 'The structural unity of El licenciado Vidriera', BHS, XLI (1964), 242–46; Otis H. Green, 'El Licenciado Vidriera: its relation to the Viaje del Parnaso and the Examen de ingenios of Huarte', in The Literary Mind of Medieval & Renaissance Spain (Lexington 1970), 185–92; Gwynne Edwards, 'Cervantes' El licenciado Vidriera: meaning and structure', MLR, LXVIII (1973), 559–68. In Novel to Romance: A Study of Cervantes's Novelas ejemplares (Baltimore and London 1974) Ruth El Saffar pursues some interesting lines of enquiry, but I cannot agree with her contention that 'the disjunction between the mad Licencíate [sic] and his prehistory, and between the work as story and the work as a collection of apothegms suggests on a deeper level the confusion of an author too much bound up with his character to be able either to understand him fully or to control the story of which the character is a part' (51–52. My emphasis). 4. Armand E. Singer 'Cervantes' Licenciado Vidriera: its form and substance', West Virginia University Philological Papers, VIII (1951), 13–31. 5. Singer, art. cit., 19–22, gives a detailed breakdown of the kinds of comment made by the Licenciado under a variety of headings and classified as apophthegmatic or non-apophthegmatic. As his scheme is more complicated than mine and includes topics under more than one head, it is not altogether pertinent here. However, the following results are not without interest: he finds 18 puns, 28 humorous remarks, 6 eulogies, 26 didactic or philosophical remarks and 27 which are caustic or cynical. 6. On poetry, autores de comedia, notaries, and a priest. His praise of good doctors is offset by his condemnation of bad ones, his sympathy for actors is tempered by some words of criticism, as is his praise of certain gamblers and gaming-house proprietors. I count these and similar instances in the second, 'ambivalent' category. 7. Novelas ejemplares, ed. Rodríguez-Marín (Madrid 1943), vol. II, 11. Page-references for the Licenciado Vidriera and the Coloquio de los perros are to this edition and volume. 8. 'Hombre vidrioso, es el que es de condición delicada y que se siente de qualquiera cosa que le digan' (Covarrubias, Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, ed. M. de Riquer [Barcelona 1943], s.v. vidrio). 9. See G. Hainsworth, 'La source du Licenciado Vidriera', BHi, XXXII (1930), 70–72; Armand E. Singer, 'The sources, meaning, and use of the madness theme in Cervantes' Licenciado Vidriera', WVUPhP, VI (1949), 34 ff.; A. G. de Amezúa, Cervantes, creador de la novela corta española (Madrid 1956–58), II, 157 ff.; Frank P. Casa, art. cit., 243–44; Otis H. Green, op. cit., 190–91. 10. Laurence Babb, The Elizabethan Malady (East Lansing, Mich. 1951), 43; Green, op. cit., 190. 11. Babb, op. cit., 92. 12. Menéndez Pelayo, Orígenes de la novela (Santander 1943), III, 113. 13. Antonio Oliver, 'La filosofía en El licenciado Vidriera', ACerv, IV (1954), 225–38. 14. He led the same kind of life as other men, was not at all proud, played his part in society and politics, charmed and exhilarated everyone with his conversation, never got angry, forgave sinners, made peace, etc.—Lucian, Demonax, trans. A. N. Harmon (London and New York 1913), I, 147–49. 15. Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Book VI, ch. ii, trans. R. D. Hicks (London and New York 1925), II. 16. See Richard Hope, The Book of Diogenes Laertius. Its Spirit and its Method (New York 1930), 7 ff. 17. See Gualteri Burlaei Liber de Vita et Moribus Philosophorum mit einer Altspanischen Übersetzung der Eskurialbibliothek (Tübingen 1886, republished Frankfurt am Main 1964). 18. I have used the edition of Seville 1541. 19. Pedro Mejía, Silva de varia lección, ed. J. García Soriano (Madrid 1933–34), I, 164, 165. 20. Both the Spanish Burley (ed. cit., 209) and Hernando Díaz (ed. cit., no pagination) carry a comment of Diogenes on the uselessness of old men dyeing their hair. The dyeing of beards evokes two satirical witticisms and an anecdote from Vidriera (66–69). 21. Donald R. Dudley in A History of Cynicism (London 1937), 209, points to 'outbreaks of kindred movements at various ages as manifestations of a tendency deeply rooted in human nature, and asserting itself whenever the rights of the individual need upholding against the political, moral, or economic constraints of society'. He refers to the ascetic Christian orders, Albigenses, Franciscans, Anabaptists, the American and other pioneers, and anarchists. Hippies would be an obvious addition. 22. See in particular Demonax, Philosophies for Sale, Menippus, The Passing of Peregrinus, The Runaways, The Cynic. 23. Dudley, op. cit., 143. 24. Cited by Farrand Sayre, The Greek Cynics (Baltimore 1948), 66. 25. As well as the passage just quoted, see ed. cit., 48, 75. 26. Ed. cit., 251. 27. 'Cínico … cynicus, id est, caninus, mordax, inverecundus … et maxime libere in hominum vitas inveherentur … Diógenes fue desta secta. Eran sucios, porque de ninguna cosa se recatavan, teniendo por lícito todo lo que era natural y que se podía executar públicamente, como era el proveerse y el ayuntarse con las mugeres, ultra de que todos dezían mal, echando sus faltas en la calle. ¡ Plega a Dios que no aya agora otros Menipos y Diógenes caninos!' (Covarrubias, Tesoro, ed. cit., s.v. cínico). 28. Don Quijote, ed. Martín de Riquer (Barcelona 1968), 529. If the two anecdotes about madmen and dogs, addressed to Avellaneda by Cervantes in the prologue to Part II, have any relevance here, the relevance escapes me. 29. G. Mayáns y Siscar, Vida de Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, 28–31, in the edition of Madrid, 1751. 30. Elias L. Rivers, 'On the prefatory pages of Don Quixote, Part II', MLN, LXXV (1960), 214–21. 31. Cervantes celebrates the Cardinal Archbishop's 'suma caridad' towards him in the prologue to Don Quixote, Part II (ed. cit., 538), even though he never wrote that letter, so roundly rejected by Rodríguez-Moñino in NRFH, XVI (1962), 81–89. 32. See Antonio Oliver, 'La filosofía cínica y el Coloquio de los perros', ACerv, III (1953), 293–307; L. J. Woodward, 'El casamiento engañoso y el coloquio de los perros', BHS, XXXVI (1959), 80–87. 33. On the connexion between murmuración and hypocrisy in the Coloquio see Ruth El Saffar, op. cit., 64–68. 34. The Cynics are not the only ones who have attacked the pursuit of 'useless' knowledge. But it seems worth recalling the fact that they did so, in the light of the description of those four inmates of the Hospital, the poet, the alchemist, the mathematician and the arbitrista, whose lifework has contributed nothing to what Berganza sees as the real problems of humanity. Mexía says Diogenes 'tenía en poco las artes y sciencias sin provecho, y a los que tenían más cuidado dellas que de las costumbres' (ed. cit., 167). 35. 'Ni gusto de murmurar, ni consiento que delante de mí se murmure; no escudriño las vidas ajenas, ni soy lince de los hechos de los otros', says Don Diego de Miranda (Don Quixote II, xvi, ed. cit., 647). 36. Cf. e.g. Oliver, 'La filosofía cínica y el Coloquio de los perros', 307; Alan Soons, 'An interpretation of the form of El casamiento engañosoy Coloquio de los perros', ACerv, IX (1961–62), 209. 37. Cipión says the Jesuits are mirrors of, 'finalmente, la humildad profunda, basa sobre quien se levanta todo el edificio de la bienaventuranza' (244). 38. The subject has not yet received the study it deserves. For some summary considerations, see Amezúa's introduction to his edition of El casamiento engañosoy el Coloquio de los perros (Madrid 1912), 106–11; and J. B. Avalle-Arce and E. C. Riley ed., Suma cervantina (London 1973), 299. 39. It has strong points of resemblance with those in La gitanilla, El viaje del Parnaso and Don Quixote II, xvi. They are in the same tradition as the poetic doctrine of Luis de León. 40. Cf. the anonymous sonnet 'Pues nunca de la Biblia digo le-,/ni sé si eres, Cervantes, co- ni cu- …', reproduced by Schevill and Bonilla in their edition of the Viaje del Parnaso (Madrid 1922), 197. 41. e.g. Green, op. cit.; Edwards, art. cit.; El Saffar, op. cit., 50 ff.
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