Agustín Durán

AGUSTÍN DURAN A Biography and hiterary Appreciation AGUSTÍN DURAN A Biography and Literary Appreciation David Thatcher Gies TAMESIS BOOKS LIMITED LONDON Colección Tamesis SERIE A - MONOGRAFÍAS, XLVIII © Copyright by Tamesis Books Limited, London, 1975 ISBN o 7293 0000 5 Designed and Printed by The Compton Press Ltd. Compton Chamberlayne, Salisbury, Wilts. for TAMESIS BOOKS LIMITED LONDON For MJ, who knows why Contents Preface Acknowledgments Genealogy PART ONE AGUSTÍN DURAN : THE MAN i The Early Years, 1789-1806 11 Seville, 1806-17 ni Transition, 1817-28 iv Literary Beginnings, 1828-39 v Maturity, 1840-60 vi The Final Years, 1860-2 vil In Retrospect PART TWO AGUSTÍN DURAN: GRITIC AND GOLLECTOR i Critical Background n Criticism and the Theater ni Criticism and the Romancero iv Miscellaneous Criticism PART THREE AGUSTÍN DURAN : THE POET i Contemporary Themes 11 Imaginative Poems AGUSTÍN DURAN PART FOUR Conclusión 165 APPENDIGES A. Death Certifícate 173 B. Gertificate from Vergara 174 C. Gertificate from San Isidro 174 D. Marriage Certifícate 175 E. Example of Each Glass of Romance 175 BIBLIOGRAPHY Duran as Author or Editor 181 Selected Bibliography 185 Index 193 Preface José Zorrilla stands in a grand salón, flanked by oversized canvases of historical, religious and mythological themes. Scattered about the room, oversized sculp- tures gaze hollowly at the proceedings. Forty-one of Madrid's leading novelists, poets, sculptors and critics surround Zorrilla, some listening attentively to his poetry, others staring dispassionately at the art pieces. Bretón, Hartzenbusch and Escosura are there; so too are Roca de Togores, Pacheco, Martínez de la Rosa, Ventura de la Vega, Quintana and Campoamor. Gil y Zarate, Ros de Olano, Burgos, Amador de los Ríos and Mesonero Romanos are present, hushed by the poet's words. In the lower right-hand córner a small man, seated stiffly on a wooden ladderback chair, feet precisely crossed, right hand perched formally on his leg and left arm slung over the back of the chair, stares intently across the room, past Zorrilla, past the listeners, past the borders of the scene. The scene is Antonio María Esquivel's painting, "Lectura de Zorrilla en el estudio del pin tor", and this intense little man is Agustín Duran. Duran, highly regarded in his day as a leading figure in the romantic move- ment has been, since his death, alternately praised as a visionary and denounced as a reactionary myth-monger. The contradictions of romanticism make both of these epithets at least arguable. His many years of working with the romances and the comedias were a monu- ment to patience. His method of collecting, cataloguing and organizing the various collections and myriad individual works testifies to his never-failing belief in their valué. From the very first drama collection and Romancero he made pages upon pages of notes, writing on each the title, author, characters and theme of each comedia, and the title, possible date, and first line of each romance. Every paper was then folded and stored (when it was not recopied for greater legibility) to be later indexed. He next compiled alphabetical lists of the authors, first lines and subject matter. He color-coded them for referen ce valué, identified their sources and sewed the Índices together in booklet form. The scrap papers were kept, neatly packaged according to their different sizes and subjects. This process was followed through literally thousands of pages: if Lope was the "monstruo de la naturaleza" for his plays, Duran was surely the "monstruo de la biblioteca" for his lists and Índices ! If his life was essentially devoid of drama, his history was the passionate history of an idea. In the literary passages of this study Duran will speak for him- self as much as possible. His comments will be followed by statements on the validity of his arguments by both his contemporaries and his future critics. It is important to see how Duran was perceived and related to in his own times in order to reject the accusations that he was muddle-headed in his critical AGUSTÍN DURAN activities. Often he was wrong, and at times confused, but he was seldom ignored. The amount of recognition, criticism and even hostility his works generated is evidence of his importance in the literary history of nineteenth- century Spain. This book is a beginning, and a cali for a complete revaluation of Duran. It will attempt to analyze various conflicting views and to present him through a study of his life, critical activities and original literary compositions. St. Bonaventure University, March, 1974. xii Acknowledgments Any errors of interpretaron in the present study are mine; any insights are based upon the years of arduous work of other Hispanists, and are gratefully recognized. If I mere to ñame all of those individuáis who guided, aided, supported or encouraged my research, these pages would achieve unwieldy pro- portions. I must, however, personally thank Professor Javier Herrero for his constant stimulation, help and interest during the years of this project; without him it would never have been begun, let alone completed. I would publicly show my appreciation to some of the many men who simi- larly encouraged this research by answering my inquines, supplying Information or expanding bibliographical sources - Ignacio Aguilera, Derek Lomax, Fran cisco López Estrada, Luis Monguió, José Fernández Montesinos, and Pedro Sainz Rodríguez. It was gratifying to see the true scholarly interest demon- strated by these individuáis, and to know that a novice Hispanist could partake of their generosity. I wish to express my gratitude to St. Bonaventure University for the financial and emotional support which helped to bring this task to fruition. Abo, the kind people at the following institutions receive my warmest appreciation: Biblioteca Nacional, Archivo Histórico Nacional, Biblioteca del Palacio, Archivo del Palacio, Hemeroteca Municipal, University of Seville, Biblioteca de Menendez Pelayo, and the Real Chancillería de Valladolid. Finally, I express my admiration and résped to the memory of D. Agustín Duran, whose scholarly dedication to his country's literature and perseverance instilled me with the courage to continué. xiii Francisco + Antonia de GENEALOGY Gato Vicente Duran .Yáñez ( -1793) 1 r Cipriana + José Agustín Gato + María Luis Gato + Josefa Duran Yáñez Eulalia de Duran Alvarez Duran Yáñez Cayetana Yáñez Guerra (i 789-1862) Cuervo (1791- ) Llamazares 1. José Gato María Duran José Alvarez Cipriana + Antonio Duran y Cuervo y Cuervo Duran Alvarez Machado y (1821- ) (1829- ) (1822- ) Duran Núñez Francisco Gato Duran y Cuervo 1 "— (1822- ) Agustín Antonio + Ana Ruiz Juan Duran Duran Llamazares Machado y Hernández Llamazares Alvarez (1821- ) (1846-93) Manuel Antonio José Joaquín Francisco Cipriana Machado y Machado y Machado y Machado y Machado y Machado y Ruiz Ruiz Ruiz Ruiz Ruiz Ruiz (1874-1947) (i875-i939) PART ONE AGUSTÍN DURAN: THE MAN Al publicar el segundo [tomo] he tenido presentes dos cosas, la patria en que nací y la religión en que vivo. Español, he buscado en nuestro suelo mis aspiraciones. Cristiano, he creído que mi religión encierra más poesía que el paganismo. JOSÉ ZORRILLA I The Early Years, 1789-1806 Agustín Francisco Gato Duran y de Vicente Yáñez was born in Madrid on October 14, 1789.1 His father, Francisco Duran, professor of medicine and physician in the royal chamber, was a highly intelligent and sensitive man, re- nowned not only in his field of specialty but also as a man with a well-developed literary sensibility. Francisco was sworn in as physician on December 13, 1790, and practised, particularly to the nobility, during the early years of the nineteenth century.2 It is not unlikely that this same Francisco Duran was the author of the play La industriosa madrileña y el fabricante de Olot (1790) and the "tragic soliloquy" Dido abandonada (1792). Furthermore, the ñame again appeared in 1807 when he was granted a licence to publish Resumen en prosa de las Metamorfosis? A native of Puebla del Maestre, a small town in Badajoz, he carne to Madrid where he met and married Antonia de Vicente Yáñez, a fragüe girl from San Lorenzo, who was unfortunately to die when Agustín was only four years oíd. Agustín inherited his mother's frailty and tendency to infirmity, an ill-fated inheritance from which he was to suffer his entire life. Don Francisco was 1 There is considerable confusión concerning the date of Durán's birth. Many notable Hispanists, including E. A. Peers, J. García Mercadal, M. Romera-Navarro, J. Cejador y Frauca, F. C. Sainz de Robles, A. Salcedo Ruiz, as well as Espasa-Calpe's Enciclopedia Universal Ilustrada, Bompiani's Diccionario de Autores, and the Revista de Occidente's Diccionario present 1793 as Durán's birth year. This error seems to be copied from a work published in 1912 entitled Diccionario biográfico matritense by Luis Ballesteros Robles. Agustín Ruiz Cabriada in his Bio-bibliografía del cuerpo facultativo de Archiveros, Biblio tecarios y Arqueólogos 1858-1958 gives 1792 as the year of Durán's birth, but provides no documentation for this assertion. Durán's death certifícate (see Appendix A) states that when he died in December of 1862 he was seventy-four years oíd, placing his birth, then, in 1788. However, two diíierent sources lead me to believe that this was perhaps a clerical error. Durán's cióse friend Juan Eugenio Hartzenbusch in a eulogy read in the Biblioteca Nacional in January 1863 mentioned October 14, 1789, as his birth date. This claim is supported by records from the University of Seville which list the matriculation on Octo ber 7, 1806, of one "D[o]n Agustín Duran Yañez, nat[ura]l de Madrid, edad de 17 a[ños] ojos pardos y pelo castaño oscuro" (University of Seville.

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