A. E. Houghton, Alfred Morel-Fatio, David Hannay, Francis Haverfield, James Fitzmaurice-Kelly, Kingsley Jayne & W. A. Phillips

“ His most incontestable merit is to have given the Spanish stage a range and scope of which it had not been previously thought capable, and of having taught his contemporaries to invent dramatic situations and to carry on a plot. It is true he produced little that is perfect: his prodigious fecundity and facility allowed him no time to mature his work; he wrote negligently, considered the stage an inferior department, good for the vulgo, and consequently did not judge it worthy of the same esteem as lyric or narrative poetry modelled on the Italians. ”

“ The union of Aragon with Castile, and the resulting predominance of Castilian throughout Spain, inflicted a death-blow on Catalan literature, especially on its artistic poetry, a kind of composition more ready than any other to avail itself of the triumphant idiom which soon came to be regarded by men of letters as the only noble one, and alone fit to be the vehicle of elevated or refined thoughts. ”

“ The Barbarian Invasion and the Visigothic Kingdom.—With the irruption of the Vandals, the Suebi and the Alans, the history of Spain enters on a long period of division and confusion which did not end even with the union of the chief kingdoms by the marriage of Isabella and Ferdinand at the close of the 15th century. The function of the barbarians everywhere was to cut the communications of commerce, and the nerves of the imperial administration, thereby throwing the invaded country back into a fragmentary condition from which a new order was to arise in the course of centuries. ”

“ The most eminent author in the department of social satire, as in those of literary and political satire, is Quevedo. Nothing escapes his scrutinizing spirit and pitiless irony. All the vices of contemporary society are remorselessly pilloried and cruelly dissected in his Suefios and other short works. While this great satirist, in philosophy a disciple of Seneca, imitates his master even in his diction, he is none the less one of the most vigorous and original writers of the 17th century. ”

“ It has been already noted that eastern Spain was feudal. Therefore the distinction of classes was far sharper in Aragon than in non-feudal Castile and Leon. Predial slavery, which had disappeared in Castile and Leon in the 13th century, existed unmodified in Aragon, and in its worst form, down to the Bourbon dynasty. When we are told of the freedom of Aragon, it is well to remember that it was enjoyed only by the small minority who were personally free and also privileged: by the citizens of the towns which had charters—called in Aragon the Universidades—the nobles, the gentry and the Church. ”

“ But Spanish loyalty was too profound to be daunted even by the awe-inspiring power of the French emperor. For the first time Napoleon found himself confronted, not by Bonaparte terrified and selfish rulers, but by an infuriated proclaimed people. The rising in Spain began the popular movement which ultimately proved fatal to his power. At first he treated the novel phenomenon with contempt, and thought it sufficient to send his less prominent generals against the rebels. Madrid was easily taken, but the Spaniards showed great capacity for the guerrilla warfare in the provinces. ”

“ The Spaniard became the swordsman and executioner of the counter-Reformation, because the power of the House of Austria depended on the imposition of religious unity in Europe. The decision of Charles V., king of Spain and emperor, to leave the Netherlands to his sen Philip II., committed the Spaniards to conflict on the sea with England, and to the insane attempt to secure a safe road for their armies across Europe from the shores of the Mediterranean to the North Sea. Thereby they threatened the very national existence of France. ”

“ It is said that at Malaga snow falls only about once in twenty-five years. The winter, in fact, is the season of the brightest vegetation: after the long drought of summer the surface gets covered once more in late autumn with a fresh green varied with bright-coloured flowers, and so it remains the whole winter through. On the other hand, the eastern part of this zone is the part of Spain which is liable to be visited from time to time by the scorching leveche, the name given in Spain to the sirocco, as well as by the solano, a moist and less noxious east wind. ”

“ The great landowners, to whom patriotism was unknown and whose religious faith was tepid, were as ready to pay tribute to the caliph as to render service to one of their own body who had become king by violence or intrigue. On the part of the Arabs, who, though a small minority of the invaders, were the ruling element, there was a marked absence of proselytizing zeal. They treated the occupation of Spain as a financial speculation more than as a war for the faith. ”

“ Within the Castilian domain, thus embracing all in Spain that is neither Portuguese nor Catalan, there exist linguistic varieties which it would perhaps be an exaggeration to call dialects, considering the meaning ordinarily attached to that word, but which are none the less worthy of attention. Generally speaking, from various circumstances, and especially that of the reconquest, by which the already-formed idiom of the Christian conquerors and colonists was gradually conveyed from north to south, Castilian has maintained a uniformity of which the Romance languages afford no other example. ”

“ Great Britain seized the opportunity to punish Spain for its conduct in the American War by encouraging discontent in the Spanish colonies, and in the Peninsula itself both nobles and people were bitterly hostile to the queen and her favourite. ”

“ At the head of the opposition was Ferdinand, the heir to the throne, as insignificant as his rival, but endowed with all good qualities by the credulous favour of the people. Napoleon was at this time eager to humble Great Britain by excluding it from all trade with Europe. The only country which had not accepted his “continental system” was Portugal, and he determined to reduce that kingdom by force. It was not difficult to bribe Godoy, who was conscious that his position could not be maintained after the death of Charles IV. In October 1807 Spain accepted the treaty of Fontainebleau. ”

“ They planted the Berber down on the bleak, ill-watered, and wind-swept central plateau. He revolted, and they strove to subdue him by the sword. He deserted his poor share of the conquered land, and in many cases returned to Africa. The conflict for the caliphate (q.v.) between Omayyad and Abbasid removed all shadow of control by the head of the Mahommedan world, and Spain was given up to mere anarchy. The treaties made with the Christians were soon violated, and it seemed as if Islam would destroy itself. ”

“ A sketch of the political history of a country is necessarily concerned with the externals of politics—the shifting balance of parties, changes of ministries, the elaboration of political programmes; and these have their importance. It must, however, not be forgotten that in a country in which, as in Spain,Spanish Politics. the constitutional consciousness of the mass of the people is very little developed, all these things reflect only very imperfectly the great underlying forces by which the life of the nation is being moulded and its destiny determined. ”

“ SPAIN (España) , a kingdom in the extreme south-west of Europe, comprising about eleven-thirteenths of the Iberian Peninsula, in addition to the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands, and the fortified station of Ceuta, on the Moroccan coast opposite to Gibraltar. Each of the two island groups forms one of the forty-nine provinces of the kingdom, although only the first named belongs geographically to Spain. ”

“ From 1880 to 1890 when the French vineyards suffered so much from various plagues, and when Spain gave a great impetus to her foreign trade by numerous treaties of commerce, none of her products showed such an increase in exports as her wines. The vine-growing districts had formerly been mostly in the provinces of Cadiz, Malaga, Barcelona, Aragon and Navarre. Then the vineyards spread all along the Ebro valley and in the Mediterranean seaboard provinces, as well as in New and Old Castile and Estremadura to such an extent that wine is now produced in all the 49 provinces of the kingdom. ”

“ The republican administration of Spain was wise. The Spanish subjects were allowed to collect themselves the taxes and tribute due to Rome, and, though the mineral wealth doubtless fell into the hands of Roman capitalists, the natives were free from the tithes and tithe system which caused such misery and revolt in the Roman province of Sicily. On the other hand, every facility was given them to Romanize themselves; there was no competing influence of Hellenic or Punic culture and the uncivilized Spaniards accepted Roman ways gladly. ”

“ Spain was now more servile to France than ever, and in 1801 was compelled to attack Portugal in the French interests. The Spanish invasion, commanded by Godoy in person, met with no resistance, and the prince ventured to conclude a peace on his own authority by which Portugal promised to observe a strict neutrality on condition that its territories were left undiminished. But Bonaparte resented this show of independence, and compelled Charles IV. to refuse his ratification of the treaty. ”

“ Great Britain, France, the United States, Germany and Portugal, named in the order of their importance, are the chief consumers of Spanish exports. The chief exporters to Spain (in the same order) are Great Britain, France, Cuba, Germany and Portugal. The foreign trade of the country is of course carried on mainly by sea, and of the land commerce by far the largest proportion is with or through France. The smallness of the trade with Portugal is partly due to the similarity of the chief products of the two countries. ”

“ His rival, Juan Valera, is not, in the restricted sense of the word, realistic, but he is no less real in his own wider province; he has neither Pereda’s energy nor austerity of purpose, but has a more infallible tact, a larger experience of men and women, and his sceptical raillery is as effective a moral commentary as Pereda’s Christian pessimism. In Valera’s Pepita Jiménez and Doña Luz, and in Pereda’s Sotileza, we have a trio of Spanish heroines who deserve their fame: Pereda’s is the more vigorous, full-blooded talent, as Valera’s is the more seductive and patrician ”

“ But Floridablanca was not content with suppressing liberalism in Spain; he was eager to avenge his disappointment by crushing the Revolution in France. He opened negotiations with the émigrés, urged the European powers to a crusade on behalf of legitimacy, and paraded the devotion of Charles IV. to the head of his family. This bellicose policy, however, brought him into collision with the queen, who feared that the outbreak of war would diminish the revenues which she squandered in self-indulgence. ”

“ Portuguese, like Castilian, is a literary language, which for ages has served as the vehicle of the literature of the Portuguese nation constituted in the beginning of the 12th century. Galician, on the other hand, which began a literary life early in the middle ages—for it was employed by Alfonso the Learned in his Canligas in honour of the Virgin—decayed in proportion as the monarchy of Castile and Leon, to which Galicia had been annexed, gathered force and unity in its southward conquest. ”

“ After the example of the Provencal troubadours whose literary doctrines had made their way into Castile through Portugal and Catalonia, poetry was now styled the arte de trobar. The arte de trobar is strictly “court” poetry, which consists of short pieces in complicated measures—love plaints, debates, questions and repartees, motes with their glosas, burlesque and satirical songs—verse wholly “occasional” and deficient in charm when separated from its natural environment. ”

“ The Mediterranean province is that in which the vegetation agrees most closely with that of southern France and the lowlands of the Mediterranean region generally. On the lower slopes of the mountains and on all the parts left uncultivated the prevailing form of vegetation consists of a dense growth of shrubs with thick leathery leaves, such as are known to the French as maquis, to the Italians as macchie, and to the Spaniards as monte bajo, [2] shrubs which, however much they resemble each other in external appearance, belong botanically to a great variety of families. ”

“ The first decidedly romantic poet of the generation which flourished about 1830 was the duke of Rivas; no one succeeded better in reconciling the genius of Spain and the tendencies of modern poetry; his poem El Moro expdsito and his drama of Don Alvaro 6 la fuerza del sino belong as much to the old romances and old theatre of Spain as to the romantic spirit of 1830. On the other hand, Espronceda, who has sometimes been called the Spanish Musset, savours much less of the soil than the duke of Rivas; he is a cosmopolitan romantic of the school of Byron and the French imitators of Byron ”

“ He extorted tribute, and double and treble tribute from the princes of Andalusia. In 1082 he swept all through the valley of the Guadalquivir to Tarifa, where he rode his horse into the sea and claimed possession of the “last land in Spain.” In 1084, his friend being dead, he made himself master of Toledo. The fall of the city resounded throughout Islam, and shocked the Mahommedan princes of Andalusia into gravity and a sense of their position. Their peoples began to look to Africa, where Yusuf ben Techufin was ruling the newly founded empire of the Almorávides. ”

“ There was the same king possessing theoretically almost absolute power, both administrative and legislative; the same nobles who limited his effective power by rebellion, their constant effort to keep the crown elective, and his no less steady, and by the 10th century victorious, effort to make it hereditary; the same distinction between the few free, who are also the rich owners of land, and the many serfs, who are partial bondsmen, or the slaves pure and simple. ”

“ The Arabs at first were content to take a fifth of the land to constitute the public domain, or khoms, out of which fiefs held on military tenure were provided for the chiefs of the conquering army.
If this moderate policy had been or could have been steadily pursued, the invaders would in all probability have founded a lasting state. But it could not be pursued, since it required for its application a consistency, and a power to act on a definite political principle, of which the Mahommedan conquerors were absolutely destitute. Nor had Spain been conquered by a single race. ”