CHAPTER VI THE FORTUNA OF GARCILASO I. EARLY MENTIONS Among his contemporaries Garcilaso was held in esteem by a limited circle of men of letters, of whom we have had occasion to speak in tracing his life. Boscán and Sá de Miranda in the Peninsula, and in Italy, Bembo, Tansillo and Scipione Capece bore testimony to the regard in which they held him as a gentleman and as a poet; and we have seen evidences of his intimate relations with other poets and scholars of the day. Upon Boscán and Sá de Miranda in particular he exercised a notable influence. From the first he was the comrade of the former. The value of his advice and example bore no small part in encouraging him in his effort to write in the new rhythms and in some of these combinations, such as the octave, blank verse, the inner rhyme, and the lira, it was he who led the way and offered the models for his friend's guidance. Sá de Miranda has left clear proof of the influence which Garcilaso exerted upon him. In a passage in the dedication of his eclogue Nemoroso, written on the first anniversary of Garcilaso's death, he declares, Enviasteme el buen Laso, iré paseando asi mi paso a paso. temiendo i deseando juntamente, (Egl. V, 64-68) and elsewhere he shows that for him, at least, Garcilaso was the real initiator of the new school, Que tu fuiste el primero que enchiste el bosque del son estranjero. (id., 503-4) Even before the death of the Castilian poet, he seems to have known his work, for there is a line in his eclogue Celia (1535), Corren lagrimas justas sin parar, (Egl. III, 55) which appears to be an echo to the refrain in the song of Salicio, Salid sin duelo, lagrimas, corriendo. (Egl. I, 70)1 Perhaps it is to this answer that Garcilaso is referring in the third Eclogue when he says, y lleva presuroso al mar de Lusitania el nombre mio, donde estara escuchado, yo lo fio. (Egl. III, 246-48) In form as well Sá de Miranda shows his indebtedness to Garcilaso. The eclogue Nemoroso is polymetric, like the second Eclogue, and the various metrical combinations are. precisely those used by the Spanish poet: canzone stanzas (the form is that used by Garcilaso, lines 38-76), tercets and inner rhymes. It should be noted, however, that the latter belong to the type with the inner rhyme on the fourth syllable, following the type used by Sannazaro in his second egloga, rather than that of Garcilaso, with the rhyme on the sixth syllable. The eighth eclogue, in Portuguese, and the ninth, in Castilian, are also polymetric, illustrating a variety of metres, including the octave and the inner rhyme with the rhyme on the sixth syllable. common The genius of Sá de Miranda was akin to that of Garcilaso; not in vain did the Portuguese poet recall their ancestry. Like his Castilian contemporary he early came under the influence of the Italian poets; his first attempts in their measures are almost exactly contemporary with the early experiments of Boscán and Garcilaso. His best work shows the same qualities of delicate finish and keen ear for melodic beauty. And it is particularly significant of his esteem for Garcilaso that he, an ardent worshipper of his Italian models, should have placed the Spanish poet among his masters, acknowledging him to be the equal of Petrarch or his followers. The years which immediately followed Garcilaso's death have left no evidence that his memory was widely cherished. Save in the official documents which bespeak the Emperor's continued concern for his family, he is wellnigh forgotten. Boscán, it is true, commemorated his loss in two deeply felt sonnets, which rank among his best works. The second deserves quoting for its unaffected sincerity, Garcilasso, que al bien siempre aspiraste y siempre con tal fuerça le seguiste dime ¿por que tras ti no me llevaste, Bien pienso yo que si poder tuvieras de mudar algo lo que esta ordenado, en tal caso de mi no te olvidaras; que, o quisieras honrrarme con tu lado, o a lo menos de mi te despidieras, o, si esto no, despues por mi tornaras. (Son. XCII) And again, in the Octava rima, he refers to him affectionately as a noble gentleman and as a poet in Latin and Castilian, |