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THE TRADITIONAL STORY OF “LA DIFUNTA PLEITEADA”, CADALSO'S NOCHES LÚGUBRES , AND THE ROMANTICS.

1961; Liverpool University Press; Volume: 38; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/1475382612000338206

1469-3550

Nigel Glendinning,

Medieval European Literature and History

Abstract A tale which has appeared frequently in both folklore and literature is that of the young lady who died when forced to marry a man she did not love, but returned to life when exhumed by one she did. Versions of the story can be found in Spanish romances, Turkish tales and Breton lays ; in the works of Bandello and Boccaccio, Shakespeare and Lope de Vega ; even in Tennyson and Edgar Allan Poe. Much has been written about them. María Goyri de Menéndez Pidal in 1909 seems to have been the first to publish an extensive study—in relation to the sources of Lope's play La difunta pleiteada. BSS Subject Index: CADALSO, JOSÉ (1741–1782)LOVE [AS LITERARY/CULTURAL THEME]*NOCHES LÚGUBRES [J. CADALSO]ROMANTICISM/ROMANTICISMO Notes 1Cf. Henri Hauvette, La Morte Vivante (Paris 1933), passim. Tennyson's version is called The Lover’s Tale and Poe's The Premature Burial. 2María Goyri, La difunta pleiteada, Estudio de literatura comparativa, (Madrid 1909), reprinted in her book De Lope de Vega y del Romancero (Zaragoza 1953), 7-59. I am indebted to Professor E. M. Wilson for drawing my attention to María Goyri's work and for suggesting its relevance to my Cadalso studies. 1Cf. María Goyri, De Lope de Vega y del Romancero (Zaragoza 1953), 28-29. 2Cf. Henri Hauvette, op. cit., 22-25, 76 et seq. 1Tediato's speech in the Noche primera beginning " Sí, necio eres, y mereces com-pasión …" ends with the following words ; " No te canses, no busco el cadáver de persona alguna de los que puedes juzgar. Ya no es cadáver." The rather enigmatic last sentence might well be intended to suggest that Tediato is envisaging the revival of his beloved. Cadalso provides an analagous instance of hope in her revival in his poem Lamentos con motivo de la muerte de Filis. In both cases the hope is followed by despair at the reality of her death. 1 Carta I a a Dn Juan Antonio Melendez Vaidés from the collection in the possession of Don Jesús Joaquín Mena Mateos of Zarauz (Guipúzcoa), published by Felipe Ximénez de Sandoval in Hispanófila, No. 10 (1960), 21-45. I am most grateful to Sr. Ximénez de Sandoval for letting me see the text of these letters before their publication. 2Cf. Carta 5a a José Iglesias in Hispanófila, No. 10 (1960) 32. 3 BAE., LXI, 247-48. 1Cf. Archivo de Simancas, Gucrra moderna, Legajos 48 and 1165. 2The story of a dying man clutching at an innocent person who is later thought responsible for his death is a common one. Stith Thompson includes it in his Motif-Index of Folk Literature (N.342.2), and Rotunda mentions an Italian case in his Motif-Index of the Italian Novella in Prose (K.2125.7). In Spanish literature there is a similar incident in the romance " Lisardo el estudiante de Córdoba" (BAE, XVI, 266-67), and in Espinel's Marcos de Obregón (Relación tercera, Descanso XII). A case also occurs in the Countess D'Aulnoy's Lady’s Travels into Spain (London 1774, I, 257). 1Achille du Laurens, Les Nuits lugubres par le coronel don Joseph Cadalso (Paris 1821), vii. 2Cf. editions by María Marés (Madrid 1852, 1858, 1867 and 1878), and that of the Despacho, calle de Juanelo (Madrid s.d. 1885 ?). Other editions also implied the identification of the author with Tediato. The Madrid 1847 edition had " Historia de los amores del coronel Don José Cadalso escrita por él mismo " as a snb-title, and many editions after that of Cabrerizo (Valencia, 1817) included Cadalso's sonnet "Mientras vivió la dulce prenda mia " in the volume, giving it the heading " Tediato a la muerte de Filis ". 3Professor Helman in her edition of the Noches (Santander-Madrid 1951) lists seven editions and impressions with Four Nights. She omits those of the " Despacho, calle de Juanelo núm. 19" (Madrid 1885 ?), and the Marés edition (Madrid 1867). Impressions of Marés's editions not listed by Professor Helman are advertised at the back of works printed in 1862 and 1864. It is interesting to note that these editions omitted several philosophical passages and other unexciting material from the first and second Nights. 1G. Díaz-Plaja, Introductión al estudio del Romanticismo español (" Colección Austral " Buenos Aires 1953), 159-86—Apéndice II. 2Cf. J. Tamayo y Rubio, " El problema de las Noches lúgubres ", Revista de bibliografía national, IV (1943), 365. 3Nogales Delicado y Rendón, Leyendas y Relaciones, Prosa II (Valladolid 1893), 147-219. Fernández de Lizardi's earlier Noches tristes and the Marqués de Casa-Cagigal's Noches Iúgubres, both in some degree imitations of Cadalso, do not further the cause of Romantic distortion. 1I have seen one two-part edition (Barcelona, Imp de José Tauló, calle de Cirés No 5, 1859) and the Third Part of another edition (Barcelona ?, Imps. Hospital, 19 " El Abanico ", s.d.). Professor Wilson very generously gave me two other copies of the First Part (Palma, Imprenta de B. Rotger, s.d.; Barcelona, Impresos de la Viuda de A. Llorens, Palma de Santa Catalina, núm 6, s.d.). El Sepulcro is mentioned with other late nineteenth-century pliegos by Camilo José Cela in his Pregón de Feria from the collection El gallego y su cuadrilla (Barcelona 1955), 54 ; also in his Viaje a la Alcarria (Madrid 1948), 160. 1Two Romantic legends entirely without foundation grew up about Cadalso's death. According to the first, he sought death in battle because of his misery after María Ignacia's death. Cadalso's letters to friends written during the seventies suggest that this was not the case. According to the second, he was killed because he took the place of a brother officer who had an amorous rendez-vous. Tamayo y Rubio has pointed out that this version is the same as a story by Cecilia Böhl de Faber titled Los dos amigos. Since the same story is told about the circumstances of Cadalso's death in the notoriously inaccurate manuscript work called Los vicios de Madrid, written by J. M. S. in 1807, there is no reason to attach much documentary importance to it, in spite of the fact that Gallardo heard it from Cadalso relatives in Cadiz in 1843 (vide RHisp, XIII, 1905, No 43, 195 ; and BAE, LXI, 246), In fact the legend is disproved by the contents of a letter from General Martín Álvarez de Sotomayor dated 28 February 1782. This contains the official story of Cadalso's death and states categorically that it was his turn of duty the night he was killed. The letter is in the Archivo Histórico Nacional, Madrid, Estado Leg? 4235, Apartado 3. 2Edwin S. Morby, " The Difunta pleiteada theme in María de Zayas ", HR, XVI (1948), 238. Cotarelo referred to an edition circa 1870. An earlier one is advertised in a list at the end of a pliego printed at Valladolid, " Imp. de Santaren ", in 1863. I have consulted the edition published at Madrid by the " Imprenta Universal de F. Hernández " in 1886.