The Rhetoric of enkomion poleos and the Sanctification of Madrid in a pliego suelto Attributed to Lope de Vega

ABSTRACT

This article explores the fusion of epideictic rhetoric and biblical source material in a 1601 romance dubiously attributed to Lope de Vega and argues that the rhetorical model of urban praise known as enkomion poleos, as articulated by Menander of Laodicea, fundamentally structures the poem's refiguring of Israel's Babylonian exile. This overlaying of enkomion poleos with biblical narrative ultimately serves as a persuasive means both of praising Madrid and of criticizing the Duke of Lerma's move of the court to Valladolid. The poem's sacralized rhetoric of urban praise further points to an important mode of urban writing that has not received due critical attention. This article also highlights some commonalities between this pliego and other works by Lope de Vega, tentatively suggesting that the question of the pliego's authorship demands further consideration.

KEYWORDS:

• Bible
• enkomion poleos
• Lerma
• Lope de Vega
• Madrid
• rhetoric
• Valladolid

Notes on contributor

Chad Leahy is Assistant Professor of Spanish at the University of Denver. His research interests include the epic and lyric of Lope de Vega, urban representation, and the politics of Jerusalem in Early Modern Spain. His work has been recognized in journals including Anuario Lope de Vega, Bulletin of Spanish Studies (forthcoming), Cervantes, Criticón, Hispanic Review, Lemir, Revista de Literatura Medieval, and Romance Notes.

Notes

1. For a limited sampling, see Braun and Pérez-Magallón (Part III), Cámara, Checa Cremades and Fernández-González, García Santo-Tomás, Greer, Harris, Kagan, and Merrim.

2. On this poetic current, see Alonso Cortés (Noticias; “Romances sobre el traslado”; Romances sobre la partida), Conde Parrado and García Rodríguez, and Navarro Durán. On Lerma and the court's move, see Feros (168–73).

3. See Alonso Cortés (“Romances sobre el traslado” 77), Carreño (in Vega Carpio, Poesía VI: xxxvi), Castro and Rennert (507), De la Barrera (I: 75–76), and Profeti (433). Carreño (in Vega Carpio, Poesía VI: xxxvi) and Wright (68) also mention the doubts of Entrambasaguas, Millé y Giménez, and Pérez Gómez.

4. For other approaches to Lope's sacralization of Madrid, see Sánchez-Jiménez (“Memoria”) and Leahy.

5. For an overview of epideictic, see Wilson and Russell in Menander of Laodicea (Menander Rhetor xi–xxxiv) and the studies by Pernot.

6. Exceptions to this general rule include López Grigera (148–50), Victoria Pineda, Ruth, and Terukina-Yamauchi. On the lasting impact of Menander in the Italian Renaissance, whence Iberian Humanists may have plausibly entered into first contact with the Rhetor, see Harsting.

7. I would like to thank Terukina-Yamauchi for his generosity in sharing his work with me in advance of its appearance in print. The following pages are fundamentally informed by his work, although any flaws contained herein are of course my own.

8. On five-zone theory, see Wey-Gómez. On humoralism, see Nutton.

9. On the invention of Madrid as capital of Spain's global empire, see Río Barredo.

10. For another example of contemporary associations between Lerma and Álvaro de Luna, see Mira de Amescua's Adversa fortuna de don Álvaro de Luna (Feros 259–60). For more on Lerma and the romance on Álvaro de Luna included in this pliego, see Wright (82–109).

11. It is essential to note at this juncture that two key passages from Lope's plays Los mártires de Madrid and La Francesilla engage in an almost identical structure to the romance under consideration here, both in terms of their manipulation of enkomion poleos and their particular forms as a poetic despedida of Madrid articulated around the word “adiós.” The coincidences between texts are evident even at the level of syntax and lexicon. Compare, for example, “adiós todo, adiós, pues todo / tiene de Dios el principio. / Contra nuestro gusto vamos” (“Altas y encumbradas torres” [vv. 73–75]) and “Todo adiós, pues de Dios tienen / Fin y pincipio […]; que yo me voy” (Los mártires 115); “adiós Madrid […] / Corte del gran Salomón” (vv. 21–23) and “Adiós, Madrid […]/ Corte del mayor Monarca” (114); “Huerta y jardines de Chipre, / quinta de milagro quinto […]/ Casa del Campo y del cielo” (vv. 65–69) and “¡Adiós jardines ilustres […] / y adiós quintas / Y quintas en alabanza! […] / ¡Adiós, deleitoso Chipre, / Del cielo y del campo casa” (114–15); or “adiós prados, casas, ríos, / monasterios, anchas plazas, fuentes, calles, edificios” (vv. 18–19) and “Adiós, templos y edificios, / casas, plazas, calles, torres” (La Francesilla). Although such close correspondence between our romance and these plays by Lope may be purely coincidental, perhaps due to their common grounding in enkomion poleos and the genres of despedida or suntaktikos, the similarities are indeed striking and may lend some credence to the possibility that this pliego could, in fact, be the work of Lope.

12. All biblical citations that follow are from the Latin Vulgate, the only authorized version of the Bible available in Early Modern Spain. English translations of the Vulgate are from the Douay-Rheims translation. Note that verse and chapter numbers in the Vulgate do not always correspond to contemporary translations of the Bible.

13. See also Scott and Simpson-Housley.

14. See, for example, Philip III's protestation in the Papal court regarding his claims to the throne of Jerusalem in a 1604 diplomatic dispatch: “aquel Reyno es mio por justos y notorios titulos […] todos los lugares pios de aquella Tierra Sancta se han sustentado de muchos siglos a esta parte con las limosnas y liberalidad de los Reyes mis progenitores y particularmente desde los Reyes Catolicos aca y despues de mis reuisaguelos, del Emperador mi aguelo y del Rey mi padre, que estan en el cielo, y que agora los sustento de la misma manera; y aunque Gotifredo de Bullon de la casa de Lorena gano aquel Reyno, ha uenido a parar en mi legitimamente” (Arce 109–10).