Estimados colegas,
El tema 19 será el último del Coloquio Cervantes. Favor de comentar
respecto a éste o los anteriores, que todavía están en vigencia, hasta
finales de este mes.
Saludos cordiales de
Los editores
KR & ARL
(DICIEMBRE)
Coloquio
Cervantes
Foro coordinado por Kurt
Reichenberger & A. Robert Lauer
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Some Critical Remarks Regarding the «Curioso impertinente»
By reading
romances of chivalry day and night, Don Quixote went mad. Period. The
books in his library, condemned by the parson--who graduated from
Sigüenza--are burned. Period.
In the few short
dialogues between the parson and Maese Nicolás, the barber, there
appears, however, a rudimentary way to comment on what happens or has
happened2. After the
brawl with Cardenio, Don Quixote and Sancho discuss the affair of queen
Madásima. A brilliant example for similar ironic commentaries is given
when the parson, in the dispute on the books of chivalry, asks the women
what they think of the matter. The wife of the innkeeper, the Asturian
servant Maritornes, and the innkeeper's attractive daughter answer
freely, and reveal by their answers a variety of ironically tainted
viewpoints, apt to elucidate the controversial matter. Cervantes himself
does not come to the fore. As usual, he leaves it to the personages of
his novel to utter what he means, approves or detests.
The way Cervantes
stages the «Novela del curioso impertinente» is completely different.
When the innkeeper shows him the manuscript, the parson has a look at it.
Also, Cardenio likes the way the story begins, and he begs the parson to
read it aloud to the assembled company. At the end of the tragical
novella, the parson utters a fundamental dislike but there is no
discussion at all, thanks to the ingenious staging of Cervantes. New
guests are arriving. While the innkeeper and the women are busy receiving
them, Dorotea hides her face with a veil, and Cardenio disappears into
the next room. In other words, Cervantes leaves it to the reader to
consider the reasons intimated by the parson. Thereforc, it might be
advisable to compare them to another comment he utters. In chapter six,
Pero Pérez tops with the «Galatea», and the analysis he gives is
self-complacent, but all the same most competent. Holding a copy in his
hands he says: «Muchos años ha que es grande amigo mío ese Cervantes, y
sé que es más versado en desdichas que en versos. Su libro tiene algo de
buena invención: propone algo, y no concluye nada: es menester esperar la
Segunda parte que promete: quizá con la emienda alcanzará del todo la
misericordia que ahora se le
niega»3.
This is a
clear-sighted self-criticism of Cervantes. In the case of «El curioso
impertinente», his comment runs like this: «Bien --dijo el cura-- me
parece esta novela, pero no me puedo persuadir que esto sea verdad: y si
es fingido, fingió mal el autor, porque no se puede imaginar que haya
marido tan necio que quiera hacer tan costosa experiencia como Anselmo.
Si este caso se pusiera entre un galán y una dama, pudiérase llevar, pero
entre marido y mujer, algo tiene de imposible; y en lo que toca al modo
de contarle, no me descontenta». Rico remarks in a note that «imposible»
is an Italianism and that property is a basic concept in the art of
Cervantes4.
Lacking
verisimilitude, as practised in the Italianizing novelle, seems to
him a fundamental defect. And he wants to demonstrate his viewpoint by a
convincing example. Taking into consideration the title of the «Novelas
ejemplares» he wants to criticize the shortcomings of the genre imported
from Italy byy exaggerating, by skilfull mockery. Seen from this angle,
the «Curioso impertinente» reveals to be a cunning parody of the Italian
novelle and their most cherished motifs. In other words, the only
aspect of the «Curioso impertinente» worth mentioning is the way the
author has told the story – «lo que toca al modo de contarle». All the
rest is – rubbish.
2 With respect to the Chapter on the Burning of
the Books see the excellent article of Sylvia Roubaud in the edition of
Francisco Rico, o.c., vol. I, pp. 28-30. – José García Oro, Los reyes
y los libros: la política libraria de la Corona en el Siglo de Oro.
1475-1598. Madrid 1995, and Henri Kamen, The Spanish Inquisition:
A Historical Revision. New York 1998.
3 Ed. Cit., vol. I, p.86.
4 Ed. Cit., vol. I, p. 423.