Bartolome Torres Naharro

Bartolomé Torres Naharro (Miguel Sesmero Tower, Badajoz, c. 1485-c. 1520?) was a Spanish poet and playwright of the Renaissance. Creator-introducer of new theatrical and poetic forms, he was the first preceptor in the vernacular language of the European theater.

Biography

He was born in the town of Torre de Miguel Sesmero (Spain), in Badajoz, near Olivenza, around 1485. It is believed that he was of converso origin and it is speculated that he studied in Salamanca or was in Seville, but none of that is confirmed. documented; if he had been in Salamanca, he could have seen some of Lucas Fernández's works performed. It does seem to be true that he lived for a time in Valencia, since he shows that he knows Valencian Catalan in his comedy Serafina ; then he apparently had a run-in with the Barbary corsairs, during which he was a prisoner with them, it is said that in Algiers.

Emigrated to Italy in the early s. XVI and arrived in Rome around 1508, truffled at that time by an anti-Spanish environment after the death of Alexander VI and the fall of the Borgia (or Borja). Between 1512 and 1516 Torres Naharro was ordained a priest, served the curia and sought benefits and patronage in the city. His first protector was Cardinal Giulio Zanobi di Giuliano de & # 39; Medici, bastard son of Giuliano de Medici (1478-1534), very powerful, since Pope Leo X was his cousin and he himself became pope with the name of Clement VII. It is in his pontifical court where he represented (and probably already printed) his works before 1517, since he comments on current affairs then: the battle of Ravenna (1512), the recruitment of soldiers for the Holy League (1512), the celebration of the Spanish victory over the Venetians in Vicenza (1513), Isabella d'Este's journey to Rome and perhaps to Naples (1514-1515), the triumphant entry of Leo X into Florence and Bologna (1515), condolence for the death of the Duke of Nájera (1515), the very possible representation of the Tinelaria before the pope (1515 or 1516), the condolence for the deaths of Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba and King Ferdinand the Catholic (1516)... In his work For the first time, it constituted principles of theater theory that break with classicist conventions and is half a century ahead of playwrights such as Juan de la Cueva or Lope de Vega himself. He expanded the gallery of characters and set their number between six and twelve (although in his Tinellaria there are twenty), he established five days, as recommended by Horace, and recommended the concept of verisimilitude for comedies and decorum as artistic principle that should preside over them: adequacy of words, clothing and gestures to the social condition and importance of the characters. It also anticipates elements of baroque comedy, such as the incorporation of honor into the plot, the comedy of love entanglements or the systematic use of eight-syllable verse (he only uses the hendecasyllable in Italian, a language that he dominated along with French and Portuguese). The second of his protectors was the Spanish Cardinal Bernardino López de Carvajal (1455-1523), former bishop of Sigüenza and Túsculo, who was a cubicular of Pope Sixtus VI and de facto ambassador of the Catholic Monarchs in the curia. At that time he also composed quite a bit of poetry in Italian and Spanish, sometimes with strong anti-clerical content. Highlights include Psalm in the glorious victory that the Spanish won against the Venetians (in memory of the battle of La Motta, won in 1513 by the Spanish forces); Retraction (1515), Lamentations of Love and Remembrance Epistle.

Before 1517 he left Rome for Naples, where in that year he published the Propalladia, which contains eight of his comedies, many of his poems and an important prologue where he theorizes about theater and he divides comedies into news and fantasy, that is, realistic and comical or idealized, imaginative and serious. The title responds to being the first poetic productions ("primae res Palladis") of the author. From there he returned to Spain. The date and place of death are unknown, which must have occurred around 1520 and in any case before the Aquilana was published in Rome, in June of that year or shortly after, since its corrector Fernando Merino already considered it The earlier date, in contrast to the hypotheses that following Marcelino Menéndez Pelayo spoke of a Sevillian stage and delayed his death by many years, is reinforced by the fact that the edition of the Propalladia of 1524 and all subsequent editions were not revised by the author, and also a notarial document declared him dead in 1521. The Propalladia was included in the Index of the Inquisitor General Fernando Valdés of 1559 and after that date only one expurgated edition came out in Madrid in 1573. The reason seems to be the strongly anticlerical character of some of his satires, some intended directly against the pope, as noted in some of the statements made in the inquisitorial trial against the sculptor Esteban Jamete in Cuenca, who according to several of the witnesses who testified against him "has a book from the Propaladia where it said a couplet "Judas que das jubeleo penitentes ginimundo, you will be according to what I see condemnatus in profundo" 3. 4;. And that this appearing party thought that this Judas was the pope."

First dramatic mandatory in Spanish

In 1517 he published in Naples a compilation of his dramatic works with the title Propalladia ("First gifts to Pallas"), in whose brief "proem" Torres Naharro exposes his dramatic theories. It is the first important theoretical exposition about the theater of the entire European Renaissance.

...Comedia is nothing else but an ingenious artifice of remarkable and finally joyful events, by disputed people. The division of della into five acts, not only does it seem good to me, but much necessary; although I call them days, because they seem more restful than anything else. Where comedy is best understood and recited.

The number of people to be introduced is my vote that should not be as few as the deaf party, or so many that generate confusion. Although in our Tinellaria comedy, twenty people were introduced, because the subject of the lala wanted no less, the honest number seems to me to be six to twelve people. The decorum in comedies is like the gubernalle in the nao, which the good comic must always bring before the eyes. It is a just and decent continuation of the matter, it is appropriate to know: giving to each one his own, avoiding the improper things; using all the legitimate, so that the servant does not say or do acts of the Lord, et econverso; and the sad place entristecello, and the joyful joy, with all the warning, diligence and possible way, etc.

Wherever such comedy is, and why, there are so many opinions, which is a confusion. As for the genres of comedy, it seems to me that two would suffice in our language: comedy to news, and comedy to fantasy. The news is understood as a note and a real view, as are Soldadesca and Tinellaria. Fantasy, fantastic or fined thing that has real color, even if it is not, like Serafina, Himena, etcetera. Parts of comedy, ansimism, would suffice two, scilicet: introit and argument. If you feel more like it should be, like one or the other, you have a license to remove and put the discreet. Ansimismos will find in part the work some Italian vocablos, especially in comedies, of which he agreed to use, having respect to the place and the people to whom they recited. Some of them I have taken away, others I have let go, which are not to undermine our Castilian language, before they make it more copious.

His concept of dramaturgy maintains many of the conditions of Horacio's Latin comedy. In summary, his ideas are:

• The work must have a happy ending: "an ingenious artifice of remarkable and finally joyful events by contested people"
• It must be divided into five acts, which he calls for days.
• He must avoid all improperity; decorum is the guiding element of dramatic art: "Give each one his own, avoid improper things, use of all legitimate things, so that the servant does not say or do acts of the Lord, and converse."
• The number of characters must be between 6 and 12: "they must not be so few that it seems deaf party or so many that generates confusion"

He divided comedies into two types: "a news", which are based on the observation of reality and deal with "things noted and seen in reality for real", and &# 34;a fantasy", of "fantastic or feigned thing, which has the color of truth, even if it is not". However, unlike Aristotelian poetics, he conceives comedy with a happy ending but with notable characters, such as those in tragedy (a feature that would continue in the new lopesca comedy), and, also like the theater of the Century of Later gold, would combine a plot of main characters with entanglements and love affairs of servants and servants, in imitation of La Celestina and other precedents of humanistic or university theater. For him, comedy can include matters of a historical nature (when many Renaissance theorists consider them exclusive to tragedy) in perfect coexistence with invented entanglements.

Possibly his influence on the subsequent evolution of theater in Spain was much greater than that of Gil Vicente or Juan del Encina. It also constitutes a decisive step in the reintroduction of classical theater in Spain at the end of the XVI century, with authors such as Juan de la Cueva or Miguel de Cervantes himself.

Works

His poetic and theatrical work, which adds up to a total of forty-two pieces, was gathered in a volume that he titled Propalladia (Naples, 1517). The Erasmian element that can be found in many of the comedies caused it to be included in the books prohibited by the inquisitor Don Fernando de Valdés in 1559, although the multiple editions published up to that date had already exerted themselves in the theater of the first half of the s. XVI an important influence.

He wrote a total of fourteen dramatic works, all comedies, albeit with serious conflicts. In them, he demonstrates a knowledge of the human being and an experience superior to that of the theater of couplets by Juan del Encina or Lucas Fernández. Apart from the elemental Dialogue of Birth, which still follows the model of Juan del Encina, all of them are extensively developed, with various characters and conflicts.

The meter of his works is monostrophic and belongs to the English tradition. Alexandrian couplets with broken feet are frequent, such as the one used later by Jaime de Huete, whose work Torres Naharro must have influenced. Only in the Hymene does he use an Italianate stanza.

Sometimes he uses several languages, as corresponds to the different origins of the cosmopolitan population of Rome, such as Portuguese, Italian or French. His style is, in any case, poor and vigorous.

The comedy Serafina (1508) is probably his first dramatic work. His plot comes from the ballads, specifically the matter dealt with in the "Romance of Count Alarcos", in which Floristán, spiteful for Serafina, asks Orphea in marriage. The conflict that he raises is that of love with two women, but it is resolved with the arrival of Policiano, who is finally married to Orphea, while Floristán returns to the love of Serafina, whom he joins. The comedy reflects the Erasmus of the first half of the XVI century.

Soldadesca (1510?) is a comedy "a noticia" that reflects the life of the companies of soldiers moments before embarking for the war. It shows the corruption, criminality and bestiality of the instincts of this group. It forms a realistic observation picture whose intention is social and critical, denouncing the abuses and impunity of Spanish soldiers and mercenaries in Rome.

Trofea (1514?) is a comedy "a news" Composed on the occasion of the celebration of an embassy from Manuel the Fortunate sent to Pope Leo X. This must have been followed by Jacinta (1514-1515?).

Tinellaria is another of the comedies of observation of customs or "a news". In it we find a macaronic language made up of a mixture of various Spanish dialects and languages, as well as Portuguese, Latin, Italian, French and German, on the occasion of the description of a banquet in the tinelo or dining room of the servants of a cardinal's palace. What is shown is the picaresque mentality, the relaxed and parasitic life of some people who should have paid their lord gratitude and work. The intensity is extraordinarily achieved.

Himenea (1516?), considered his best work, is based on three acts of La Celestina. Its conception is already very mature and manages to increase the emotional intrigue until the climax, which occurs when its protagonist, an offended marquis, in a precedent of the theme of honor and bloody revenge that will be common in the theater of the century XVII, is about to kill his sister Phebea. But at that precise moment, he makes an appearance in love with her, Himeneo, revealing that they are already husband and wife and avoiding the tragedy of honor. In it there are already precursor features of the theater of the Spanish Golden Age, such as the conflicts of the gallants, the night scenes full of misunderstanding and mystery, with the servants of these gallants full of fear, acting as funny, and therefore, he has seen in it a precedent for baroque swashbuckling comedy.

The comedy called Calamita, offers a very well-constructed treatment of the same themes as the comedy Himenea, as well as the comedy Aquilana.