The Sonnet ‘No me mueve, mi Dios’ and St John of the Cross

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Notes

1. ‘El anónimo del soneto “No me mueve mi Dios” ‘ in Varia Lección de Clásicos Españoles (Madrid: Gredos, 1964), 419–40 (at 419).

2. St John of the Cross: His Life and Poetry (London: Cambridge U.P., 1973), 3.

3. Some of these attributions are dealt with by Marcel Bataillon in the study cited above (note 1). Others who have considered the matter without drawing any firm conclusions include Sister Mary Cyria Huff in The Sonnet “No Me Mueve, Mi Dios”—Its Theme In Spanish Tradition (Washington: The Catholic Univ. of America Press, 1948) and, more recently, John V. Falconieri in ‘“No me mueve mi Dios ...” y su autor’ published in the Actas del Cuarto Congreso Internacional de Hispanistas I (Salamanca, 1982).

4. Copies of this book are very rare. A complete list of its contents is given by Eulogio Pacho in ‘San Juan de la Cruz y Juan de Santo Tomás, O.P. en el proceso inquisitorial contra Antonio de Rojas’ in Ephemerides Carmeliticae XXII (1971), 349–90 (at 371–73).

5. Exact date unknown—see Pacho, op. cit., 354.

6. Pacho, op. cit., 354.

7. ff. 56–70 of the 1630 edition (Bib. Nat. de Paris, D/50736). References will be to this edition as detailed by Pacho (note 4).

8. Subida del Monte Carmelo, Book 2, Chapter 13, paragraphs 2 to 4. All subsequent references to St John's works will be given in an abbreviated form, e.g. for the passage above (Subida, 2:13:2–4). Noche, Llama and Cántico B will refer respectively to Noche oscura, Llama de amor viva and the second redaction of the Cántico espiritual.

9. (Subida, 1:13:11).

10. f. 82.

11. The ‘Defensorio’ of Antonio de Rojas (AHN Inq. Leg. 4467), reproduced by Pacho, 377–80. The section cited appears on p. 378. ‘Noche oscura’ refers to the whole of the 1618/19 edition, being the name by which the alumbrados of Seville referred to this work. This is made clear by Domingo de Farfán's ‘Memorial’ of 4.5.1626, sent to the Inquisitor General, Andrés Pacheco, on the subject of the alumbrados. Farfán says of this book ‘el dicho libro, aunque vulgarmente le llaman “noche escura”, por un tratado que tiene intitulado “noche escura”, pero el titulo del libro dize asi: “obras espirituales que encaminan una alma a la perfecta union con dios, por el P. Fr. Juan de la cruz . . .” ‘ (AHN Inq. Leg. 2963) Reproduced in Estudios Eclesiásticos XI (1932), 414–18.

12. Father Lucinio gives 1667 as the earliest date of publication for ‘Olvido de lo criado’. See Vida y obras completas de San ]uan de la Cruz, (Madrid: BAC, 1964), 947.

13. Pacho, op. cit.., 375, ‘Rojas conoce páginas que no figuran en esa edición (1618/19) y que nunca se habían publicado; por tanto, usa manuscritos sanjuanistas’.

14. f. 4, see Pacho op. cit., 375.

15. All quotations from Rojas given according to Bataillon, Varia Lección, 433–34.

16. (Subida, 1:13:6) Subsequent references to St John will occur in this abbreviated form in the main text.

17. St John did not lack devotion to the Sacrament, as is seen in his poem ‘Aunque es de noche’. However, he seems not to have shared the preference for frequent communion common to Rojas and the alumbrados.

18. St John is mistaken in his attribution and also in that neither Boscán nor Garcilaso turned these lines ‘a lo divino’. This was done by Sebastián de Córdoba. It seems likely, given St John's distaste for things secular, that he may only have known Garcilaso's poems in their divinized versions.

19. St John of the Cross, 111–15.

20. (Cántico B: Prólogo: 2).

21. The only way for the reader to become involved in this communication with the crucified Christ is to take the part of the poet, applying the sentiments expressed to himself. I believe that this is the poet's intention and that the sonnet, as others have said, is best seen as a text for meditation.

22. The Poet and the Mystic (Oxford: Oxford U.P., 1977), 112.

23. Thompson, op. cit., 110.

24. An Anthology of Spanish Poetry 1500–1700, Part II (Oxford: Pergamon, 1977), 96.

25. Reproduced as the cover illustration on Brenan's study.

26. Varia Lección, 421.

27. Basilio Ponce de León defended St John's works from attack on this point. His task was made easier by the adulteration of St John's text in its first edition, the effect of which was to attenuate the rigour of the saint's words.