Lupercio Leonardo de Argensola

Lupercio Leonardo de Argensola (Barbastro, Huesca, December 14, 1559 - Naples, March 2, 1613) was a Spanish poet, historian and playwright.

He stands out for his poetic work, of a classicist nature, and for being one of the initiators of classical Spanish theater, asscribing to the late-century Renaissance school XVI, with its two preserved tragedies Isabela and Alejandra, written in her youth. His poetry was collected and published by his son Gabriel along with those of his brother, also a poet, Bartolomé, under the title Rhymes. Senior chronicler of the Kingdom of Aragon, he published works on the Zaragoza Alterations and continued the work of the Annals of the Crown of Aragon , with additions to said work, written by Jerónimo Zurita.

Biography

He studied Philosophy and Jurisprudence in Huesca and Rhetoric and History in Zaragoza with Andrés Scoto and, after finishing these, he moved to Madrid, where he attended poetic academies and adopted the pseudonym "Bárbaro", playing with the name Mariana Bárbara de Albión, whom he married in 1587.

During his stay in Madrid, he held various public positions, among them, the secretary of Fernando de Aragón y Gurrea, fifth Duke of Villahermosa and, on his death, that of Empress María of Austria. He was named Senior Chronicler of the Kingdom of Aragon in 1599, a position he would hold until his death.

The Deputies of the Generality of the Kingdom of Aragon publish the appointment of Lupercio Leonardo de Argensola as Cronist of the King of Aragon, with an allocation of four thousand annual salaries by the Tax of Generalities. 13 October 1608.

On the death of the Empress in 1603, he left the court to go to reside in his country house in Monzalbarba, a town on the outskirts of Zaragoza. In 1610, when the Count of Lemos was appointed viceroy of Naples, he went with him as secretary, a position in which he was succeeded by his son Gabriel from him. There he was one of the main promoters of the Academy of the Idle; however a sudden illness caused his death.

A lover of the classics, like his brother Bartolomé, he especially admired the poets Horacio and Marcial. His lyrics are characterized by their classicist roots and a moralizing character. He wrote sonnets, triplets, songs, epistles, and satires. His poetic works (whose manuscripts —according to his brother— Leonardo himself burned) were collected by his son and published in 1634 together with those of Bartolomé under the title Rhymes of Lupercio and Doctor Bartolomé Leonardo de Argensola.

He also composed the tragedies Filis (which has not been preserved), Alejandra and Isabela, which were praised by Cervantes ( Quixote, I, XLVIII), dating from about 1580. He considered the comedies of the time immoral. For him, poetry should be the vehicle of Moral Philosophy. As a chronicler, he wrote an Information on the events in Aragón in 1590 and 1591 , a historical document based on the riots that occurred when Antonio Pérez took refuge in Aragón.

Poetic work

Cover of the Rimas of the Argensola, Zaragoza, 1634.

The themes of his poetry are presided over by concern for decadence and the passage of time, although to combat it he resorts to a fundamentally stoic thought that can be observed even in his love poetry, always devoid of sensualism, like those that begin «Inside I want to live on my fortune», or the titled «AL SLEEP », which begins with the verse «Frightful image of death». However, the Petrarchan tradition of the XVI century leads him to treat love from a neoplatonic or satirical point of view as a style exercises. However, in songs, the Horatian tone frequently raises the pitch.

The sonnet «La vida en el campo» is of great classical perfection, where the Neo-Stoic tone is appreciated and the theme of Horace's Beatus ille is discussed.

He also showed a great mastery of satirical poetry, having among his models Persio, Juvenal and, above all, the Bilbilitano Marcial. The "Epistle to Don Juan de Albión" (1582) is a praise of the aurea mediocritas that critically reviews different types of baroque society. He uses colloquial language and the popular saying to its fair measure; In his own statements, he claims to write general satires against vices, not against people. We have an example of a satirical sonnet in which he begins “Esos cabellos en tu frente enjertos”, against the deceitful hypocritical youth, common among the themes of baroque disappointment.

He also composed religious and circumstantial poetry, which does not hold much interest, except for the triplets of the «Description of Aranjuez», which were admired by Azorín. He also translated six odes of Horace in an exemplary way.

Lope de Vega said of the Argensolas:

It seems that they came to Aragon to reform in our poems the Castilian language, which suffers from novelty horrific phrases, with which it is more confused than illustrated.

Lope de Vega.

Theater

In the first half of the 1580s, Lupercio Leonardo de Argensola wrote three tragedies, Filis, Isabela and Alejandra, of which that the first has not reached our days. These are Christian tragedies, of a moralizing nature, whose models are Greek. They are divided into four acts but lack a chorus and respect the neo-Aristotelian units of time, place and action. In addition, Lupercio uses polymetry and, in general, refers to the Valencian dramatic school of the late XVI century.

The tragedy Isabela places the action in the Saraqusta of the 11th century, and dramatizes the persecutions of the Mozarabs by the Moorish king Alboacén, which refer, in turn, to those of Daciano to Santa Engracia and the "innumerable martyrs" of Zaragoza in the 4th century. It has been thought that the work is a denunciation of religious fundamentalism and the persecution and expulsion of the Moors of the contemporary era of Lupercio.

The Alexandra is set in ancient Egypt, and criticizes court life, in keeping with the topic of «court contempt». Regarding his tragedies, Aurora Egido puts forward the thesis that Lupercio shows how the bad government of kings "leads to his own misfortune and that of all his subjects, including the innocent".

This is a theater with a good workmanship in terms of language and dialogues, which use a varied polymetry, although they lack the vigorous dramatic action of Lope de Vega's, prioritizing the narrative of the facts and the debate of ideas, to actions. Although Cervantes indicates that they were admired by the people of Madrid in their representation, being also exemplary in their respect for Aristotelian precepts, it is only known for sure that Isabela was successfully represented in Zaragoza between 1579 and 1581. of public.

Articles and monographic studies

• EGIDO, Aurora, Forest for a theatre history in Aragon until the end of the 18th centuryZaragoza, Institution «Fernando el Católico», 1987.
• GREEN, Otis H., «Bartolomé Leonardo de Argensola and the Kingdom of Aragon», Archive of Aragonese Philology, vol. IV, 1952, pp. 7-112.
• - Life and Works by Lupercio Leonardo de Argensola, Institución «Fernando el Católico», Zaragoza, 1945. Complete PDF edition in the Virtual Library of the Institution Fernando el Católico.
• MARCOS MARÍN, Francisco A., Lupercio Leonardo de Argensola (1559-1613). Laboratory of Computer Linguistics
• MONTANER FRUTOS, Alberto, «Leonardo de Argensola, Lupercio», en Philological Dictionary of Spanish Literature (XVII century), P. Jauralde (dir.), Madrid, Castalia, 2010 (New Library of Scholarship and Critics, 31), vol. I, pp. 702-720.

References used as source

• «Lupercio Leonardo de Argensola», in the Great Aragonese Encyclopedia (on line).
• LATASSA, Felix, Library of Aragonese Writers (online).
• PÉREZ LASHERAS, Antonio, The literature of the kingdom of Aragon until the sixteenth century, Zaragoza, Ibercaja-Institución Fernando el Católico, 2003, p. 180-181. ISBN 84-8324-149-8