101
Le agradezco a José Antonio Cerezo sus sugerencias para mejorar este trabajo, presentado al VI Coloquio de la Asociación de Cervantistas, Alcalá de Henares, 11 de noviembre de 1993. (N. del A.)
102
Like everyone studying Cervantes today, I am greatly indebted to the scholarship of Alban K. Forcione. In the case of this article, Forcione's illuminating analysis of romance conventions and Erasmian thought in the Novelas ejemplares, which he explores in Cervantes and the Humanist Vision, has been especially inspirational. Sánchez-Castañer 7:357-70 and El Saffar 150-51 provide summaries of trends in scholarship on La española inglesa. (N. from the A.)
103
Debate over the date of composition of La española inglesa based on internal, contradictory, factual data in the text is a persistent aspect of scholarship on this tale. Rodríguez-Luis's discussion of this issue (1980; 1:30-33) is remarkably similar to that of Singleton (1947). I believe the conflicting mix of historical facts in the novela is a deliberate attempt on Cervantes's part to encourage readers to share the broader viewpoint of an older, experienced artist and man nearing the end of his career and life. For Cervantes's purposes in La española inglesa, the sacking of Cádiz represents that of both 1587 and 1596, as well as any other English incursion on Spanish soil within recent popular memory. Coherent factual specificity is not as significant as the pattern of behavior and collective attitude that have been generated by a series of events interpreted in certain ways (not always accurately) in the past. See Johnson and Stagg for a different point of view regarding the novela's date of composition and the significance of the historical data incorporated into the tale. (N. from the A.)
104
On Cervantes's complex engagement with romance see chapter 2 of Forcione's Humanist Vision, «Cervantes's La Gitanilla as Erasmian Romance» 93-223. Pages 93-96, 208-15 in particular address the intersection of romance with the sociohistorical moment, stressing both the need for readers to recuperate the spirit and substance of Cervantes's time and the difficulty of doing so.
Murillo focuses on five
novelas, among them
La española inglesa, which
«comprise the center of gravity of the entire collection»
(231). He characterizes these tales as idealizing romances,
«narratives of betrothal or courtship; they begin by disclosing or
depicting the obstacles to the union of two idealized (usually adolescent)
lovers who are given the freedom to select each other as their mate, and come
to a close with the celebration of their marriage»
(233). Significantly, Murillo groups
La española inglesa with
La gitanilla as romances of
«idealized betrothal»
(232, 236-39). (N. from
the A.)
105
Cervantes (and other Renaissance Humanists) find a kindred spirit here in Iser, who stresses the liberating, elevating, imaginative potential of literature. In chapter 1 «Fictionalizing Acts» 1-21, Iser describes the transgressive, transformational processes involved in the actualization of the literary text. (N. from the A.)
106
Frye's
Secular Scripture is the basis for my
analysis of
La española inglesa as romance.
The kidnapping motif is one of the standard «themes of
descent»
(95-126) that often occur at the beginning of a
romance, initiating the plot with a downward plunge into captivity in a lower
world (54). (N. from the A.)
107
See Lowe and Casalduero 119-21 on symmetry as a prominent structural and stylistic feature of La española inglesa. (N. from the A.)
108
Casalduero 128-29 outlines the Platonic progression of the protagonists in their pursuit of marriage and a peaceful life together. (N. from the A.)
109
See White 20-21 on the unicorn's supernatural powers and symbolism and Shepard 73-77, 119-27 on its prophylactic applications and significance as a heraldic emblem. Hanrahan and Johnson examine the historical circumstances that aroused hopes for a Spanish-English reconciliation during the reign of James I. (N. from the A.)
110
Ruta views Ricaredo as the genuine protagonist of La española inglesa, rejecting the notion of dual development of a heroine as well as a hero as central to the narrative (372). (N. from the A.)