SPZMS

of 1919 ied to his resignation and general election. Trade disputes were SS ae the year, and in the n there were operations against e southern tribes of Morocco. ‘These meric ate continued during 1921, 1922, ae. em te marked by a series disasters to the Spanish forces. A military directorate under Captain General Primo-Rivera of Barcelona was institut ed to govern the country in Septemb er, 1923. Some of the ministry were dismi ed, some exiled. King |Alfonso acquiesed in forming new political regime. Language—The Spanish language is Romance tongue, descended from Latin. Celtic and Germanic invaders adopted it; the Moors failed to obliter ate all the conquerors of Spain it it; from borrowed words and_ enriched its vocabulary. The Catalan tongue and |Limous in_of the old troubadours are to Prove ngal, Galician to Portuakin Spanish, carrie to d the New World, guese. ca millions in S. and Central Ameri where has developed local peculiar i tie s. speak it, vocabulary is very wealt hy and the The euphonious. The Basque language quite apart, preserves the langua ge, tongue of the he Iberians, if not even the earlier aborigines; some 500,000 people speak it and guard it jealously. Spanish Literature may be said to begin with Spain’s Latinization (2nd Martial, Quintilian, are among Span. contributors to Latin literature. Between the disruption of the Roman Empire and the struggle for Span. independence, literature in Spain was confined to the Moors, who greatly promoted learning by Arabic treatises on philosophy, science, etc., and _transtotle). The Cid’s exploits against the Saracens at length inspired Span. minstrels, especially the Castilian writer of the epic Poema del Cid (c. 1150). The first Span. poet whose name we know was early bards used Catalonian, Limous in, and Galician dialects, but Alfonso X., the Learned (d. 1284), who greatly fostered Span. literature, a ured him were prepared in Castilian the Svete Partidas (code of laws), and Grande y Generale Hist or i a, which, though comparatively sober, reflects the heroic age, like the chronicles, romances, etc., of this medizval period. Didactic and satiric verses, songs, hymns, etc., were also composed. by such 14th cent. poets as Don Juan Manuel, Juan Riz, Lopez de Ayala. But, above all, Romances, prose and poetic, captivated the Span. imagination—cycles of Troy, Alexander, Arthur, Charlemagne, and particularly Amadis de Gaul; Spain simply reveled in supernatural romances of chivalry, whose extravagance affected England and other countries. Marquis Enrique de Villena, Marquis Guzman, and other poets adorned the court of John Ii., 1406-54. But the dawn of the golden age of Span. literature was heralded by Boscan and Garcilaso (d. 1536), the lyric poets who introduced the Ital. Renai ance influence into Spain, and with it more grace, artistry, and variety of form and subject. Diego de Mendoza (d. 1575) wrote cla . poems and history; Monte may or of Portugal produced in Spanish an elevated pastoral romance, Diana, imitated in Cervante’s Galatea; Fernando de Herrera composed cla ical odes, Luis de Leon, lyrics of great dignity and purity; Castillejo es a championed the old romantic style. The absurdities of the heroic romance, however, were soon to be laughed to scorn by Cervantes, 1547-1616, the greatest figure in Span. literature; while the writer of the famous Lazarillo de Mendoza—established the popularity of the realistic Picaresque novel, the type afterwards favored by Le Sage, Defoe, Fielding, and others. Religious representatives (relieved by farcical interludes), pastoral plays, eclogues, and dramatic novels (e.g., had paved the way for real drama, in which Span. genius found natural expre ion, for a time surpa ing all Kurope. Erudite dramatists copied the ancients; others used the stage to enforce morals; national Span. drama came with the 16th cent., ushered in by Torres Rueda, whom Cervantes admired. Cervantes himself wrote plays (at first eschewing the involved and unnatural plots then becoming fashionable); but in fertility was far excelled by Lope de Vega (1562-c. 1635), whose inventive, dramatic, poetic gifts were displayed in 2,000 plays and in other works. The Span. comedy as he shaped it has been described as a ‘dramatic novel’ in principle. Other famous dramatists and poets of this illustrious period are the ‘Span. Horaces,’ the brothers Argensola, (a. ¢. 1565); the cla . poet, Vincente Espinel (d. 1634); the fantastical Gongora, 1561-1627, the Span. Marini or Lyly, who introduced the Estilo Culto: Juan de Mariana (d. 1623), the historian; Quevedo, 1580-1645, the great satirist, who mocked the Gongorists’ ‘New Art;’ Villegas, 1595-1669, the graceful Span. A nacre on; and Calderon, 1600-81, who, in fine poetry, maintained the glories of Span. drama. Antonio de Solis, August in More to, Francisco de Rojas, among Calderon’s many contemporaries, followers, and fellow-dramatists, After this great national outburst came a period of decadence in the 18th cent., when Fr. models were greatly copied. Melendez Valdez wrote graceful able pat others introduced Romanticism; and a number of recent and living writer s have attained a European reputation and scholars. Such are Zorrilla, 1817-93, Pedro Alarcon, 1833-98, and Juan Ramo n the Arthe ale Ferrar i and Vicente Blasco Ibafiez the novelist.