University of Virginia Library

I. The Sequence of Eclogues I-VIII

The first eight eclogues appeared together in the princeps edition of Encina's Cancionero published under the poet's own supervision at Salamanca in 1496, though they do not follow the sequence of the festivals in the Christian calendar which they celebrate (that is, Christmas, nos. I-II; Easter, nos. III-IV; Carnival and Lent, nos. V-VI). The four pairs of plays also form complementary units as to dramatic sense since the

second playlet always acts as a sequel to the first. Taking the traditional date of 1492 for Encina's dramatic beginnings, Cotarelo situated the Christmas eclogues I and II on Christmas Eve, 1492, the Easter pair III and IV in Holy Week of the following Spring, 1493, the Carnival eclogues V and VI in Shrovetide of the next year 1494. Erroneously supposing that Eclogues VII and VIII also celebrated Christmas (there is no mention of anything to do with Christmas in either!), Cotarelo assigned VII to Christmas of 1494 and VIII, said numerous times in the text iself to take place exactly a year later, to Christmas of 1495. The Cancionero left the press on June 20, 1496, according to its colophon.

Now this chronology takes two very important things for granted: (1) that 1492 was the date of Encina's first plays, and (2) the sequence in the printed Cancionero is the actual sequence of composition. The traditional date of 1492 for Encina's dramatic début has no documentary basis in fact and derives from the well-known passage in Agustín de Rojas' loa on the origins of the Spanish theater in his Viaje entretenido of 1603. Commenting on the year of the fall of Granada, Rojas wrote:

Now while the Moorish capitulation and Columbus' landfall in America both took place in 1492, the Inquisition had been established already by 1478 and the campaigns of Gonzalo de Córdoba ("el Gran Capitán") against the French in the kingdom of Naples did not begin till after the death of Ferdinand I of Naples in 1494. Kohler, writing on the rather blurry historicism of Rojas and the unreliability of the date 1492 for Encina's début, accurately observed: "Offenbar hat Rojas, wenn er von dem ersten berühmten spanischen Dichter, Juan de la Ençina spricht, der in den Tagen des Columbus und Ferdinands des Katholischen lebt, nicht ein bestimmtes Jahr im Auge, sondern will nur eine Epoche allgemein charakterisieren" (Sieben Eklogen, p. 20). Menéndez y Pelayo actually took this arbitrary date to "fix" the entry of Encina into Alba's household. He writes: "La más antigua de estas composiciones escénicas, que es una égloga de noche de Navidad representada en 1492, nos permite fijar la fecha en que Juan del Encina entró como familiar en el castillo de Alba de Tormes."[11] This "fact" has been mechanically repeated ever since.

As to our second reservation, J. Caso González has adduced convincing historical evidence to suggest that the eight eclogues were actually written within a year of each other and in the sequence of the festivals of the Christian calendar, not in the order printed. Basing his argument primarily on the references in Carnival eclogue V to imminent war with France, Caso González fixed the year of the piece as 1496. Beneyto grieves in the play over the departure of the Duke of Alba ". . . antes mucho de mes muerto, / y que al marzo ha de partir" (Eglogas completas, V, ll. 39-40). Beneyto is later overjoyed to hear that a cessation of hostilities has been declared (ll. 197-205). Against the suggestion of Crawford and others that the pact referred to in Encina's text was the peaceful transfer of Roussillon and Sardinia to Ferdinand by Charles VIII of France on September 10, 1493, Caso suggests that Encina referred to troop movements under way in the spring of 1496. At that time, Ferdinand the Catholic was engaged in campaigns in the kingdom of Naples, as we have seen above. Towards the end of 1495 and especially in the early months of the following year, Ferdinand built up a diversionary campaign against his adversary attacking France from the frontiers of Roussillon. He instructed the various military Orders and certain grandees of Spain to muster in the war zone by June. Alba may have been among them, but decided to leave somewhat earlier in March (as Bras' words in lines 39-40 would seem to indicate). Charles, however, beleaguered on two fronts, opened convincing overtures of peace at about this time and the Castilians felt confident enough to begin demobilization procedures. Though the French king later proved treacherous, it would have appeared highly probable at Carnival time in 1496 that the risk of open war near Spanish soil had palpably diminished.

A closer examination of dates for the year 1496 bears out the plausibility of Caso's contentions. In the year 1496, Easter Sunday fell on April 3 and Carnival was celebrated the customary forty-odd days earlier in mid-February.[12] Precisely speaking, Shrove Tuesday of the leap year 1496 was February 16 and Ash Wednesday, marking the beginning of Lent, fell on February 17. Prior to the Tuesday night of the performance of V, then, it is common knowledge that the Duke of Alba has been summoned to appear in Roussillon by June, but plans to leave earlier, ". . . y que al

marzo ha de partir." Early word arrives of a truce and the alarm of the Alba household passes. Commenting on the raids into France of the commander Enrique Enriquez de Guzmán in 1496, the historian Prescott confirms: "The French, who had concentrated a considerable force in the south, retaliated by similar inroads, in one of which they succeeded in surprising the fortified town of Salsas. The works, however, were in so dilapidated a state, that the place was scarcely tenable, and it was abandoned on the approach of the Spanish army. A truce soon followed, which put an end to further operations in that quarter" (my emphasis).[13]

Caso fixed the dates of the two Christmas eclogues by a reference (Eglogas completas, I, ll. 28-31) to the fear in which Alba was supposedly held by France and Portugal. The latter fact, connected with the demise of João II of Portugal on October 25, 1495, and the military support provided by Alba to his successor Prince Don Manuel, suggested the date of I and II, therefore, as December 24, 1495. In the prose preface to the First Eclogue, there also occurs an important reference to the Cancionero of 1496: ". . . prometió que venido el mayo, sacaría la copilación de todas sus obras porque se las usurpavan y corrompían" (Eglogas completas, p. 69). The "following May" would be only a month short of the precise date on the Cancionero's colophon of June 20. If, as seems unlikely, 1492 were the true year for Eclogue I's composition, then the promised deadline would have been missed by a highly improbable three and a half years. In the Eighth Eclogue, Encina speaking in the guise of Mingo actually does present the promised Cancionero to the Duke and Duchess of Alba. Since Eclogue VIII was necessarily written before it went to press, the presentation scene here must refer to the gift of Encina's collected plays, poems, prologues and so on, written out in fair copy and ready for the printer, not to the handing over of the Cancionero as such. The poems are referred to by Mingo thus: "que trayo para les dar, / agora, por cabo de año, / el esquilmo del rebaño / quanto pude arrebañar" (ll. 53-56). The image of sheep-shearing in late Spring and the reference previously to "este verano" (l. 40) harmonize perfectly with the period May-June under discussion, and the phrase "por cabo de año" (preposterously construed by Cotarelo as a reference to Christmastime) can be viewed, with Caso, as a reference to the end of Encina's first year of service at Alba's court.[14]

No critical authority has questioned the relationship, proclaimed numerous

times in the text, of Eclogue VIII to Eclogue VII. The latter was performed one year earlier than the former. Hence, if VIII dates from late Spring of 1496, VII must have been written in late Spring of 1495. By process of elimination, the two Holy Week eclogues, III and IV, must fall within the single, twelve-month span during which I-VIII came into being, that is Easter of 1496. In that year Good Friday fell on April 1 and Easter Sunday (the possible day of the performances of both plays) on April 3. Adding these specifics to Caso's proposed new chronology, the following composite picture emerges:

• (1) Eclogue VII (en reqüesta de unos amores), late Spring—early Summer of 1495,
• (2) the Christmas eclogues I and II, December 24, 1495,
• (3) the Carnival eclogues V and VI, Shrove Tuesday, February 16, 1496,
• (4) the Holy Week eclogues III and IV, April 1 and 3, 1496, and
• (5) Eclogue VIII, a year later than VII, late Spring—early Summer of 1496, but necessarily prior to June 20.

Before leaving the issue of Eclogues I-VIII, certain new implications raised by these chronological revisions must be examined. Foremost among these is the obvious gap created in Encina's biography. Where would he have been between roughly 1490, the date his studies at Salamanca terminated at around age twenty-two, and the summer of 1495? Moreover in whose service was he during this period? To fill this gap, José Luis Varela has adduced fascinating new evidence concerning Encina's possible activity as a corregidor and circuit judge in Aguayo (Santander) early in 1495.[15] According to a document in the Simancas archives, one Juan del Enzina was designated by the Catholic Kings to recruit troops for the war brewing with France and had discovered his agent, Alonso de San Pedro, to be guilty of bribery and fraud in receiving pay-offs from men of military age wishing to avoid the draft. The document bears the date March 23, 1495. Since Encina's patron, the Chancellor of Salamanca University Don Gutierre Alvarez de Toledo, was related to the royal family, and since Encina (described in a papal bull of 1500 as "vir dominus Johannes del Enzina clericus Salmantinus Bachelarius in legibus") had studied law,[16] there is nothing intrinsically improbable in his having worked for Ferdinand and Isabella in a legal capacity early in 1495.

A second important consideration revolves around Encina's activity as a musician and composer. According to Mons. Higinio Anglès, Encina's

music was composed for Alba's court in the 1490's and transmitted to the royal repertoires in Castile via the regular interchange of minstrels and musicians.[17] Now if in the early 1490's Encina was actually in the service of the Catholic Monarchs, his musical settings may have passed in the other direction, that is from the royal chapels to the Duke's scribes who collected the Cancionero musical de palacio largely from scores in the court of Alba de Tormes.[18] Certain of Encina's sixty-two extant compositions may also have been penned after his appointment as resident dramatist in 1495.

In a third consideration, evidence suggests Encina was in the service of the Catholic Kings since before the capitulation of Granada on January 2, 1492. In the prologue to his paraphrase of Virgil's Bucolics addressed to Ferdinand and Isabella, Encina claims that no one can adequately express the greatness of their deeds. Then he adds: "¿Quanto más yo, que aun agora soy nueuo en las armas e muy flaco para nauegar por el gran mar de vuestras alabanças?"[19] The use of armas here could, of course, be merely a trope in such an encomiastic context. The recital of campaign victories on this page and the specific reference to Granada two lines further down, however, heighten the possibilities for its literalness. Did he then serve in the Granada campaign in some capacity? In his Trivagia (1521) Encina compares the sparse and level landscape of Jericho to the Vale of Granada in language suggesting he had visited the Moorish stronghold. He comments: "Que propio semeja, si buen viso tengo, / la vega en España, que vi de Granada."[20] Finally, in one of Encina's finest villancicos, the opening refrain runs: "Levanta Pascual levanta / aballemos a Granada / que se suena ques tomada."[21] Was this poem written at the time and place of the events which its evergreen air of topicality suggests? Marshaling these conjectures in chronological order, Encina's early career might have evolved thus: graduation in law and minor orders from Salamanca in 1490-91; part of the retinue of the Catholic Kings at the fall of Granada, January 2, 1492; a period of artistic activity, chiefly musical, at the royal court, 1492-94; a period as circuit judge for the same monarchs, spring, 1495; entry into the Alba household and promotion to master of ceremonies and resident dramatist in early summer, 1495.