Góngora and Christóvão de Moura: Portraits in Nature in the Sonnet “Árbol, de cuyos ramos fortunados”

Abstract

Like many writers, the Spanish poet Luis de Góngora y Argote employs images of nature in his verse to illustrate the evanescence of life or to make moral comparisons between mankind and the external world. Like some authors, he also uses these symbols to depict individuals and politics of his day. This essay tells how, with arboreal, ornithological, arthropodan, and other images of nature in the sonnet “Árbol, de cuyos ramos fortunados,” the poet describes himself and the Portuguese nobleman, Christóvão de Moura, whose patronage he tries to win with both praises and threats. More importantly, the article presents Góngora as a masterful portrayer of and commentator on people and events of Golden-Age Spain.

Acknowledgments

Diane Chaffee-Sorace is professor of Spanish at Loyola University Maryland where she teaches language, literature, and culture courses. Her primary field of research and publication is poetry and prose of the Spanish Golden Age, with emphasis on the verse of Luis de Góngora.

Notes

1. For commentary on these sonnets, see the articles by Chaffee-Sorace which are listed in the “Works Cited.”

2. See verses 35–40 in Elias L. Rivers (83–84). See also Isabel Torres who discusses the ivy and laurel in the context of patronage in Garcilaso's Égloga 1 (98–99).

3. Cervantes is probably criticizing men such as Juan de Tassis y Peralta and Pedro Téllez Girón, the womanizers of the Spanish court.

4. I have edited the spelling, punctuation, and capitalization of the verses reproduced from the Chacón manuscript, Obras de don Luis de Góngora, and of the excerpts from texts by Juan de Horozco, Hernando de Soto, García de Salcedo Coronel, Borja, and Gonzalo Correas.

5. Robert Jammes and Biruté Ciplijauskaité classify the piece (219; Sonetos 109). Salcedo Coronel offers his opinion of it: “Entre todos los sonetos de don Luis, ninguno hallo más digno de alabanza que éste […] donde en metáfora de un moral, con maravillosa amplificación alaba el generoso linaje de este caballero y solicita su favor, con frases tan elegantes, con sentencias tan lúcidas, que pudiera este soneto hacerle grande entre los más famosos poetas de la antigüedad” (112). Also quoting Salcedo Coronel, Jammes adds that, although from a technical standpoint the sonnet is well written, if comparing it to the palinode of the Panegírico al duque de Lerma or to the satirical and burlesque poems (which are more sincere), he does not share Salcedo Coronel's admiration: “su entusiasmo traiciona en él el predominio del espíritu cortesano […], deformación visible a cada paso en sus comentarios y en su propia obra poética” (219–20).

6. During the reign of Philip II, Moura held several positions such as page to Princess Juana, gentleman-in-waiting to Prince Carlos, gentleman-in-waiting to the king, knight of Calatrava, minister and most trusted advisor to the king, commander-in-chief of the Order of Alcántara, ambassador to Portugal, member of the Junta de Noche (a small committee directing the government of the monarchy), and count of Castel Rodrigo (Martínez Millán et al. 437–38). The latter had been awarded to Moura after the composition of Góngora's dedicatory sonnet (Carreira 115). Besides the marquisate of Castel Rodrigo, the posts of viceroy to and field marshal of Portugal were given to Moura by Philip III (Martínez Millán et al. 438). Along with them was that of count of Lumiares (Cabrera de Córdoba 321; Jammes 219). See Carreira who also lists some of Moura's service and Jammes who briefly summarizes the valido's political career (115; Jammes 219).

7. In 1560, Moura joined the Order of Calatrava and received the Commandery of Fuente del Moral (Martínez Millán et al. 437; Carreira 115). However, Carreira notes that “la figura etimológica con su apellido carece de base” (115).

8. I have italicized the heraldic terminology. According to George Preble, a legend says that on the eve of the Battle of Ourique (1139) a hermit told the Portuguese count, Afonso Henriques, to proceed eastward to fight the Moors upon hearing the bells toll for mass in the morning (99). When the nobleman did as he was instructed, he saw before him the image of the crucified Christ in a halo of clouds (99). A second tale tells of the hermit promising Afonso a sign of victory which appeared as a luminous cross in the sky (99–100). In both cases, the count was assured of a crown and a line of succession all the way to his sixteenth generation (99–100). After Afonso won the battle in which five Moorish monarchs were slain, Portugal became a kingdom (100). In commemoration of the triumph, he changed his arms to five escutcheons arranged crosswise on a white shield to suggest Christ's five wounds, and he charged each escutcheon with the same number of circles to symbolize the sovereigns killed in the Camp d’Ourique (100).

9. Emilie L. Bergmann points out that Góngora creates “a new mythological explanation of the color of the mulberry,” but she perceives the tree's berries to be the five blue shields (184). Regarding Góngora's wordplay here, Bergmann quotes from Gracián's discurso 31 (229). See Gracián: “De la agudeza nominal”: “Es como hidra bocal una dicción; pues a más de su propia y directa significación, si la cortan o la trastruecan, de cada sílaba renace una sutileza ingeniosa, y de cada acento un concepto” (2: 359–60). She goes on to comment that Gracián cites Góngora's sonnet as an example of “conceptos por correspondencia y proporción” (229; 1: 42).

10. The conflict ended with the defeat of the Benimerines who were kept from advancing further into the Iberian Peninsula (Vann 723).

11. Under the direction of António de Noroña, the Portuguese set sail to occupy the port of Mamora, but after arriving on June 23, 1515, they were quickly attacked by Mulai Nasir (the governor of Mekines), experienced heavy losses, and had to re-embark (Leo 582–83).

12. See a similar emblem (number 42) in Horozco (3: 294). See also Borja's Empresas morales in which an illustration of a tree overladen with fruit is captioned “Timenda nimia fecunditas” (19). Borja translates the phrase as “Es de temer la demasía de abundancia,” and he interprets it as meaning that too much prosperity too soon can cause derangement (8).

13. On pages 183–84 of his edition of La Dorotea, Edwin S. Morby notes some comparable references to the moral in three works by Lope de Vega: Arcadia (1598): “el albarcoque, el serbal, / con el discreto moral” (386); the romance “A la creación del mundo” from Rimas humanas (1602): “Ya los árboles se ensalzan…, / el pobo, el moral prudente…, / almendros temiendo el norte” (Obras poéticas 218); and La Dorotea (1632): “Al moral llaman discreto, porque de todos los árboles florece el último.” See also Correas, Vocabulario de refranes y frases proverbiales: “Antes moral que almendro: Que se determinen los hombres de espacio y con buena consideración. El moral echa muy tarde, y el almendro muy temprano, y se suele quemar la flor con las heladas y perder su fruto, lo cual no sucede al moral” (61).

14. In addition, the cardinal was described as suffering from epilepsy (Williams 158).

15. Except for that of Henry, the Spanish king's claim to the succession was legally better than that of other rivals (Kamen 170). Chief among them were the Portuguese Catarina (duchess of Braganza) and her countryman, António (prior of Crato; Williams 158–59).

16. Philip also had military preparations for land and sea invasions which were supposedly secret, but he deliberately let the Portuguese know about them; when their ambassador complained to him about the mobilization of forces, the king confessed to Moura that he had lied by pretending not to have ordered it (Kamen 171).

17. Bergmann notes: “The image of the poet's art as weaving is common in the Renaissance, and in Homer, weaving and singing are closely associated” (185). She adds that Ariosto, Cervantes, Garcilaso, Sannazaro, Spenser, and Tasso all used “the metaphor of weaving as poetic creation” and that Linda Lee Clader discussed its employment in Homer (229; Clader 6–9).

18. Góngora suffered the most in his later years as is clear from his epistles of July 14, 1620, June 7, 1622, January 14, 1625, and July 1, 1625. See J. M. Caballero Bonald who states that the dominant topic in the letters is the bard's sorry economic situation and, correspondingly, his long and painful wait for financial assistance from his protectors or wealthy friends (13).

19. In 1593, Góngora traveled to Salamanca where he was received by Bishop Manrique and met Lope de Vega (Artigas 73–74). After recovering from an illness, he left before September 19, the date of the bishop's death, to spend September, October, and part of November in the capital (Jammes 220). See the attributed sonnet “Huésped sacro, señor, no peregrino” sent to Manrique as a good-bye gift: “conseguí la salud por la piadosa / grandeza vuestra …” (Jammes 220). Góngora's romance “Murmuraban los rocines,” written in 1593, is proof that the bard often went to the palace during his sojourn in Madrid because, according to Jammes, in the text “se satiriza a los diferentes tipos de provincianos que vienen a pretender a la Corte” (220).

20. See Jammes: “La ascensión del duque de Lerma y el apartamiento de Cristóbal de Moura obligaron a Góngora a cambiar de actitud; en el Panegírico habla del ministro de Felipe II en términos mucho menos halagadores” (219). Jammes also cites Moura's hatred for Lerma (219). For Cruz, Góngora's criticism of Moura in the Panegírico is evidence that, in his sonnet, the bard was threatening to defame Moura in future verses if the nobleman did not tender his patronage (64).

21. The red mulberry grows as tall as 70 feet and the white up to 80 (“The Mulberry”).

22. See Carreira's interpretation of lines 6–7 of the poem: “sobresales como los más altos; la casa de Moura-Tavora poseía, además de la rancia nobleza, una gran fortuna” (116).

23. See The Holy Bible Containing the Old and New Testaments (Gen. 38.6; 2 Sam. 13.1, 14.27). Transliterated from Hebrew, “Tamar” means “Palm.”

24. See the sixteenth-century etching of a handsome Moura reproduced in Cabot (156). Ciplijauskaité reports that all manuscripts except that of Chacón read “la sublime palma,” probably to eliminate the excessive use of the letter “s” (Sonetos completos 54; Sonetos 109).

25. Of all the trees, the laurel is supposedly the securest; it is reputed to ward off lightning. This frightened the Roman emperor, Tiberius, who would avoid the strokes by retreating beneath his bed and covering his head with the branches (Kent 63).

26. Theophrastus notes the effect of eating unripe dates (bk. 4, ch. 5). In their note 22, John Bostock and H. T. Riley refer to Theophrastus for the story, but they quote Antoine Fée who believes that “in the green state, they [the dates] are so hard and nauseous, that it is next to impossible to eat sufficient to be materially incommoded by them” (Pliny bk. 13, ch. 9).

27. See Ciplijauskaité who mentions that the nobleman was sent away from the court on account of Lerma's influence (Sonetos 109).