81
The speech was delivered on board the Villa de Madrid, 25 November 1870, prior to Zorrilla's departure to offer officially the Spanish throne to Amadeo. For a summary of the speech and the reactions it provoked, see Orellana, II, 1043-1046. Galdós had not of course forgotten this incident when writing the later episodios; Tito refers to the Carlist electoral success with the words: «Y éstos si que eran puntos negros» (Amadeo I, III, 1054).
82
Ángel María Segovia, Figuras y figurones, I (Madrid, 1878), 1165. Galdós possessed a copy of this work; see Berkowitz, p. 88.
83
«¡Fraternal inteligencia!» El Debate (2 September 1871). The mordacity of style and the similarity of ideas to those expressed in later, signed articles suggest Galdós' authorship.
84
José Luis Albareda, «Revista política interior», Revista de España, XXIV, Nº. 94 (28 January 1872), 288.
85
José Ferreras, «Revista política interior», Revista de España, XXVII, Nº. 106 (28 July 1872), 271. Details of the attempt on Zorrilla's life are hard to obtain; there remains a strong suspicion that Zorrilla had organized a simulacrum of a plot against himself for political advantage; for obvious reasons, no mention of this discreditable episode occurs in the panegyrical biography of Pedro Gómez Chaix, Ruiz Zorrilla el ciudadano ejemplar (Madrid, 1934).
86
B. Pérez Galdós, Política española, Obras inéditas, III (Madrid, 1923), 115-116.
87
See Política española, III, 225.
88
Gossip is in itself a source of truth: «...las hablillas del vulgo (que asimismo son documento y manantial de históricas verdades)...» (España sin rey, III, 830). Galdós, as a political journalist, had written articles which consisted of little more than the repetition of rumor; for example, see «Intrigas palaciegas», Política espanola, Obras inéditas, IV, 107-114. Galdós repeats, in España trágica, the rumors of students after the death of Enrique de Borbón and, in Amadeo I, the gossip over the loves of Amadeo; rumor is repeated, even when Galdós knows it not to be true: «Serrano conspiraba para derribar a Zorrilla, al mes de subir éste al Poder. No sería verdad; pero el público, ávido siempre de novedades, se hartaba de aquella comidilla.» (Amadeo I, III, 1030.) The important role of rumor in the later episodios also serves the literary purpose of suggesting the confused reaction of the public.
89
Tito Liviano defines this «proteísmo»: «Llevado y traído por fatal corriente misteriosa, yo era el campeón de todas las causas. En corto tiempo enaltecí con mi fácil pluma el federalismo intransigente, el federalismo templado, la monarquía conservadora de Serrano y Sagasta y la monarquía democrática de Ruiz Zorrilla. Era yo, pues, un caso peregrino de proteísmo...» (Amadeo I, III, 1034.) The device, which allows the novelist to place himself on the level of events as they take place, is not uncommon in Galdós; earlier examples of proteísmo are José Fago (Zumalacárregui) and Fernando Calpena (Mendizábal).
90
Only the passage of time determines the significance of what takes place, whether it will be «Historia o gacetilla», and only with time is it possible to interpret History: «La historia no es filósofa cuando está pasando, sino después que ha pasado, cuando vienen los sabios a ponerle perendengues... El único filósofo que puede crear obras duraderas es el Tiempo, y nosotros, plantados en un hoy apremiante, tenemos la misión de resolver el problema de un solo día.» (España trágica, III, 947.) Cf. Galdós' decision, after completing Un faccioso más y unos frailes menos, not to continue the episodios beyond the year 1834.