Ovid and the Renascence in Spain/Introduction

In the third article of my studies which are devoted chiefly to the investigation of classical influence on the works of Cervantes, my purpose was to demonstrate the extensive indebted-ness of Spain's golden century of letters to the poet Virgil. Upon turning my attention to Ovid, it soon became evident to me that I should have to cover far more ground than was the original plan of my studies, if I desired to present his relation to the whole Renascence as fully as lay in my power, and that the vast extent of his influence would be more apparent, if its origin and con-tinuity could be presented together. As regards the mediaeval epoch, something has been done, as may be seen from the bibli-ography below, but even for that period the full importance of the works of Ovid can hardly be appreciated until the influence of all the chief Latin poets upon the literatures of mediaeval Europe has been more conclusively investigated. To the study of this period, however, I have added but little, as it antedates my subject; and though my review of the early centuries, notably in Spain, presents some material not examined hitherto, my efforts have been devoted chiefly to the age which has been treated least. This extends from the dawn of the Renascence in Italy through the siglo de oro of Spanish literature, that is, through the first third of the seventeenth century.

Here, too, it soon became a hopeless task to deal with the whole subject exhaustively, and if only a very small portion of what could be done has been accomplished, the result may at least serve two purposes: to throw more light on the nature of Ovid's pronounced influence in specific epochs, and to demonstrate the continuity of his prestige and authority from age to age by fol-lowing the ramification of a distinct Ovidian tradition through various periods and forms of literary activity.

Owing to the vast extent of this field typical examples of Ovid's influence and selections of citations and parallels have ​been considered sufficient to prove the case, although more evid-ence of a similar character might have been adduced. Thus, for example, a large part of my study deals with the novela senti-mental, or romance of intrigue, which I shall hereafter designate as the Ovidian tale of the Renascence; and though there are many stories which come under this head, only typical examples could find room in my analysis. And in the field of lyrie poetry and of the drama also, a limited number of instances will be given to suggest the specific nature of the indebtedness of the poet treated to the works of Ovid.

The influence of Ovid is in some respects more subtile and, therefore, less tangible and direct than that of Virgil. This must be attributed to the fact that we are often dealing not so much with direet imitation of a particular work, as with the inheritance of certain literary traditions, the domination of a peculiar, recog-nized prestige in a circumscribed field of poetie or novelistie ideas which were first suggested or inspired by Ovid. His author-ity along certain lines became so well established in the Middle Ages that thenceforth, through the period of the Renascence, his name retained its charm, and his works constituted a final court of appeal to many a writer of poetry and romance.

Careful study of the works of the great authors of the Renascence discloses even in their most original creations a marked heritage of culture derived from one or more preceding periods of literary activity. This heritage contains elements of traditional material accepted and assimilated, unconsciously in some cases, but more often consciously and in deference to cur-rent taste. It is the discovery and analysis of what original minds have absorbed out of epochs prior to their own, which invite the efforts of the student of literary history, and which form the basis of the present study of Ovid. In some cases, investigation in the material which authors have used in the fabric of their labors may lead at once to a tangible source, such as current books whose popularity prompted direct imitation; it may reveal the sway of mere literary fads and customs, or the more subtile power of an inherited tendeney to pay tribute to ​an accepted authority of long standing, because it had been a factor in the writer's early education, or a part of the atmos-phere in which his mind matured. The example of Cervantes is a case in point: many passages in his writings indicate not only imitation of books which he must have had in his hand, but the form of his ideas often discloses the influence of an academic vogue, the acceptance of current taste, the use of phrases and sentiments for which parallels can be found in predecessors and contemporaries alike. But the assimilation of inherited forms of expression, or of ideas, may characterize a circumscribed epoch or it may be carried on through an unlimited number of een-turies: time is not always a definite factor in the history of a specific literary influence. This is the case with Ovid. Thus certain elements of fiction of the Renascence find their sources in him; and after having been transmitted for the greater part in an unbroken current to subsequent ages, they nevertheless dis-play more vitality than many features which were new in the literature of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

The works of Ovid form a particularly important and inter-esting study, not only because they contributed from the twelfth to the seventeenth century to the formation of certain traditions; they also acquired new prestige during the Renascence by means of translations, chiefly of a popular character, which by their spirit and form take rank with fiction, and thus deserve to be enrolled with the literature of the times. Indeed, "Ovid retold" in various Spanish and Italian versions constitutes a valuable chapter in the history of the novel, especially for the "Ovidian tale" of the Renascence.

Two phases of the influence of Ovid are discernible, and for the sake of clearness will be considered separately as far as possible. The first is marked by greater subtileness of character: it inspired principles of fiction, a philosophy and precepts in the "art of love," methods of intrigue, specific sentiments applicable to peculiar situations of lovers together with an analysis of man's attitude toward womankind, aphorisms suitable to the occasion indeed, various pagan features of the novel of the ​Renascence. In this more subtile kind of influence the works which play the chief part are the Ars amatoria^[1], the Remedia amoris and the Amores. The simple tale of intrigue, or the Ovidian love-story, which these titles suggest, consists in its primitive form of a very meager plot in which the lover in pur-suit of a woman, be she maid, wife, or widow (or none of these three), attains the fulfilment of his desires. Thus Ovid, who had set down nothing more than simple principles of intrigue for the satisfaction of purely physical desires, logically sketched for future times the outlines of the "Ovidian tale," in which a man seeks to win a woman, or the other way about, by following pre-scribed rules.

The second phase of the influence exerted by Ovid is the more tangible, direct and deliberate kind which manifests itself in quotations and references, in copying or imitating the romantic and novelistic features of his works, notably episodes in myths and legends. In this connection the Metamorphoses and the Heroides occupy the first place.

At the outset it will be necessary to give a brief résumé of the position and influence of Ovid during the first centuries of his ascendency in the Middle Ages, to show how his prestige became established in the face of great opposition, and what the extent and importance of that prestige were when it reached the thresh-hold of the Renascence. Thereafter it will be easier to discover in what manner he entered into humanistie culture, and by what means he attained the eminence which shall justify the claim of this little book, that he was a vital force and a factor of greater significance in the literature of the Renascence than has hitherto been recognized.