THE SAN MARTIN CENTENARY

Abstract

Not once, but many times, visitors to Liverpool from the River Plate countries have asked me to show them the street which the city has named to perpetuate the memory of George Canning and I have had either to excuse myself from a thankless task or to confess that the street in question is a dingy one, in an unlovely part of the city, exuding odours of decayed respectability. No such dilemma is likely to perplex the inhabitant of any town in Argentina if he should be asked to testify in a similar way to its pride in San Martin. Nor is the hero-worship which has characterized this San Martin centenary year something of recent growth. When I first visited Argentina in 1915–16,” records Sir Eugen Millington-Drake in a foreword to Mr. Metford's admirable biography of the Argentine Liberator.

BSS Subject Index:

• PERU/PERÚ — HISTORY, LITERATURE & CULTURE
• SAN MARTÍN, JOSÉ FRANCISCO DE (1778–1850)
• ARGENTINA — HISTORY, POLITICS & SOCIETY
• CHILE — LANGUAGE, HISTORY, LITERATURE, CULTURE & SOCIETY
• HISPANIC STUDIES/HISPANISM
• METFORD, J. C. J. (1916–2007)
• HISTORICAL NOVEL/THEATRE [IN SPAIN & SPANISH AMERICA]
• RODRÍGUEZ Y DÍAZ RUBÍ, TOMÁS (1817–1890)
• STANFORD UNIVERSITY
• UNIVERSITIES — UNITED STATES

Notes

¹ San Martín the Liberator. By J. C. J. Metford. Oxford, Basil Blackwell, 1950. Pp. xii + 154. 16s.

¹General Sir Alexander Godley, in an interesting pamphlet entitled British Military History in South America (London, Feilden Publications), gives in tabular form a detailed comparative account of the crossing of the Alps by Hannibal and Napoleon and the crossing of the Andes by San Martin and Bolívar,

¹The proceedings of the Stanford Conference on Brazil are contained in three special numbers of the Hispanic American Report. They are: 1. Background Material; 2, Conference Report; 3. Directory of Americans interested in Brazil,

¹See Revista de Madrid, 2nd epoch, III, June 1844, pp. 251–2; El Laberinto, II, No. 6, January 15, 1845, p. 95; Revista literaria de “El Español,” 1st series, I, March 2, 1846, p. 16; La Semana, I, No. 13, January 28, 1850, p. 194; Juan Eugenio Hartzenbusch, “Prólogo de la edición de 1850,” in Obras de don Manuel Bretón de los Herreros, I, Madrid, 1883, p. lvi; Ramón de Mesonero Romanos, Memorias de un setentón, new edition, Madrid, 1926, II, p. 161.

²Charles de Mazade, “La comédie moderne en Espagne: Bretón, Ventura de la Vega, Rodríguez Rubí,” Revue des deux mondes, XIX, August 1, 1847, pp. 432–61. Rubí later abandoned the historical play for the alta comedia, but at the time of the writing of this article it was his recognized field in contra-distinction to the comedia of contemporary customs of Bretón and the comedia of moral analysis of Ventura de la Vega.

¹This is commented on by N. Sicars y Salvadó, Don Manuel Tamayo y Bans; estudio crítico-biográfico, Barcelona, 1906, p. 29; Narciso Alonso Cortés, Zorrilla; su vida y sus obras, Valladolid, 1918, I, p. 217; and Angel Salcedo y Ruiz, La Literatura española, Madrid, 1917, IV, p. 560.

² See El Español, II, No. 15, December 12, 1841; Antología Española, 1848, II, p. 1.

¹The play was written for a fête day of the Queen and produced with much fanfare and government publicity in the newly created Teatro Español. For an account of the estreno see La Semana, I, pp. 82, 114, 162, 194, 210, 226, 244. See also S. T. Wallis, Spain: her Institutions, Politics, and Public Men, Boston, 1853, pp. 216–17; and Melchor de Palau, “Acontecimientos literarios,” Revista Contemporánea, LXXXV, January 15, 1892, p. 43.

²Rubí accepted the Charles Martel version of the legend. Other versions represented Charlemagne, not Charles Martel, as the hero of the episode. Following the estreno of Rubí's drama, the periodical La Crónica published an article recognizing the existence of conflicting versions and expressing preference for the Charlemagne, on the authority of an ancient chronicle of Toledo. See La Crónica, No. 21, February 23, 1845, pp. 161–2. A later account of the legend is given in Museo histórico español, 1849, pp. 5–6. Rubí's introduction of Roland and Oliver as characters in the drama is an indication that he was confused as to the identity of Charles Martel.

¹Mesonero Romanos, op. cit., II, p. 161.

² El Español Independiente, No. 73, November 8, 1842. See also Museo Mexicano, II, 1843, p. 72.

³ Revista de Madrid, 2nd epoch, I, October 1843, pp. 215–21.

⁴For historical data on his career see: Manuel Ciges Aparicio, España bajo la dinastía de los Borbones, Madrid, 1932, pp. 82–9; Modesto Lafuente, Historia general de España, XIX, Madrid, 1857, pp. 291ff; Pío Zabala y Lera, España bajo ¡os Borbones, 2nd ed., Barcelona, 1930, pp. 37ff, 118, 131, 133; Charles E. Chapman, A History of Spain, New York, 1925, pp. 435–6, 439–41; Martin A. S. Hume, Spain: its greatness and decay (1479–1788), Cambridge, 1905, pp. 383–9; Martin A. S. Hume, The Spanish People, New York, 1914, pp. 481–5.

¹Ángel de Saavedra, Don Alvaro, Edited by C. J. Winter and E. B. Williams, New York, 1930, p. x.

²Palau, op. cit., p. 40.

¹This plan offered unlimited possibilities for French ascendancy since it provided also for the marriage of the Infanta Fernanda with the Duke of Montpensier. For details of this period of the reign of Isabel II see Ciges Aparicio, op. cit., pp. 267–90.

²Martin A. S. Hume, Modern Spain, 1788–1898, New York, 1909, p. 381, footnote.

³For the history of the epoch see Rafael Altamira y Crevea, Historia de España y de la civilización española, Barcelona, 1929, II, pp. 163–72; Lafuente, op. cit., pp. 134–49.

⁴The action caused no little stir in literary circles in Madrid. See Semanario pintoresco español, 1845–6, No. 9, March 1846, p. 72; Revista literaria de “El Español,” 1st series, I, March 2, 1846, p. 16.

⁵The censorship that prohibited the production of the play did not apply to its publication, for that same year, 1846, La Corte de Carlos II appeared in print. In the preface Rubí reviewed the case and attempted to vindicate himself and the work. See Tomás Rodriguez y Díaz Rubí, La Corte de Carlos II, Madrid, 1846, pp. 3–4.

⁶The new play, produced in 1852, made no pretence of being historical.

⁷See Semanario pintoresco español, 1846–7, June 7, 1846, p. 184; Siglo Pintoresco, II, May 1846, p. 141.

⁸For the history of the epoch see Altamira y Crevea, op. cit., IV, pp. 22–36.

¹One may question the characterization of Alberoni as a Spanish patriot; but so Rubí interprets the character.

¹The Spaniard was untutored in his national past and had not the basis for enjoyment or for intelligent analysis of factual historical representations. Georges Le Gentil, Les Revues littéraires de l'Espagne pendant la première moitié du XIX^e. siècle, Paris, 1909, p. 133.