41
Both the general pattern of Cervantes's statements and attitudes and textual details -of form and substance- assure us that it was Carvallo who decided Cervantes to adopt in Viaje del Parnaso the tone, emphasis or stance that he did. Most of the parallels to be adduced, it should be noted, are additional to those advanced by Díaz-Solís. That immediately following in the text is his (p. 57); there are three other coincidences. (N. from the A.)
42
Carvallo, I, 26. (N. from the A.)
43
Díaz-Solís, p. 56. (N. from the A.)
44
The «basic» anecdote tells how a Venetian ambassador, denied a chair at an audience, sits on his cloak, which he forsakes on leaving, saying it is not his custom to carry his chair with him. Versions of the story are found in Timoneda's Sobremesa y alivio de caminantes, Sancta Cruz's Floresta de apothegmas, Lope de Vega's El honrado hermano, Pinedo's Liber facetiarum and Calderón's Judas Macabeo. The tale goes back to Livy. See A. L. Stiefel, «Zu Lope de Vegas 'El Honrado Hermano'», ZRPH, XXIX (1905), 333-36; M. A. Buchanan, «Notes on the Spanish Drama..»., MLN, XXII (1907), 215-18; G. T. Northup, «The Cloak Episode in Spanish», MLN, XXIII (1908), 72. Leite de Vasconcellos -ZRPH, XXX (1905), 332-33)- provides a modern Portuguese variant. (N. from the A.)
45
Cervantes did not inherit this image directly from Carvallo, who was throughout concerned to present the poet as «cisne de Apolo.» El Pinciano had, in passing, referred to poetry as «esta dama» and «esta señora,» «que de todos sea vista ornada y atauiada con los vocablos peregrinos, figuras y schemas» (Philosophia antigua poetica, ed. Alfredo Carballo Picazo -Madrid: C.S.I.C., Instituto «Miguel de Cervantes», 1953- II, 164), but Cervantes's late elaboration of the figure of Poetry as «bella / ninfa» (IV, 45-46) seems to have been inspired by Carvallo's «vella Nimpha tan hermosa / que si loalla quiero, es agrauialla...» (I, 38), who transports the author in a dream to «la sublime cumbre del Parnasso» (I, 40). She is «La Lectura,» who can, in this context, be easily taken to represent Poetry itself. (N. from the A.)
46
«... la verdadera sancta y honesta poesia, que... trata de cosas diuinas y licitas, que... el sancto Espiritu ha querido por boca de los sanctos Padres Patriarchas, y Prophetas, vsar dellas, y ansi aduel diuino cantor suyo y Real Propheta Dauid...» (N. from the A.)
47
The speaker is Mercury. Just as here this pagan god refers to sacred hymns and David's harp, so elsewhere he utters Christian oaths: «Por Dios» (III, 255) or «voto a Dios» (III, 195), alternating with such an exclamation as «¡Por el solio de Apolo soberano / juro!» (III, 202-03). Cervantes is employing he amusing trick that he also plays in Don Quixote, when he makes the Moor, Cide Hamete, exclaim: «Juro como católico cristiano» (II, 27), taking his cue from Carvallo: «gran indecoro seria si el Moro jurase por Christo» (II, 122). (N. from the A.)
48
Carvallo (II, 199) quotes the Ovidian line, and translates it. The parallel is drawn by Díaz-Solís, p. 57. (N. from the A.)
49
The epithet «sietemesinos» is a brilliant example of Cervantine ambiguity. Apollo himself was, according to classical mythology, a seven-month baby (see Robert Graves, The Greek Myths-Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1955-I, 76), so the word can mean «Apollinean» or «premature». Another defence prepared by Cervantes against readers who might be angered by his attacks on those he considered bad poets? (N. from the A.)
50
La Galatea, ed. J. B. Avalle-Arce (Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, 1961), p. 6. (N. from the A.)