Lesson 4

Noli Me Tangere Published in Berlin (1887)

The bleak winter of 1886 was memorable in the life of Rizal for two
reasons; first, it was a painful episode for he was hungry, sick and despondent in a
strange city and, second, it brought him great joy, after enduring so much
sufferings, because his first novel Noli Me Tangere came off the press in March,
1887. Like the legendary Santa Claus, Dr. Maximo Viola, his friend from Bulacan,
arrived in Berlin at the height of his despondency and loaned him the needed
funds to publish the novel.

Idea of Writing a Novel on the Philippines. His reading of Harrier Beecher

Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which portrays the brutalities of American slave-
owners and the pathetic conditions of the unfortunate Negro slaves, inspired Dr.
Rizal to prepare a novel that would depict the miseries of his people under the
lash of Spanish tyrants. He was then a student in the Central University of
Madrid.
In a reunion of Filipinos in the Paterno residence in Madrid on January 2,
1884, Rizal proposed the writing of a novel about the Philippines by a group of
Filipinos. His proposal was unanimously approved by those present, among
whom were the Paternos (Pedro, Maximo, and Antonio), Graciano Lopez Jaena,
Evaristo Aguirre, Eduardo de Lete, Julio Llorente, Melecio Figueroa, and Valentin
Ventura.
Unfortunately, Rizal’s project did not materialize. Those compatriots who
were expected to collaborate on the novel did not write anything. The novel was
designed to cover all phases of Philippine life. However, almost everybody
wanted to write on women, Rizal was disgusted at such flippancy. He was more
disgusted to see that his companions, instead of working seriously on the novel,
wasted their time gambling or flirting with Spanish senoritas.
Undaunted by his friends indifference, he became determined to write the
novel- alone.

The Writing of the Noli. Toward the end of 1884, Rizal began writing the
novel in Madrid and finished about one- half of it.
When he went to Paris, in 1885, after completing his studies in the Central
University of Madrid, he continued writing the novel, finishing one-half of the
second half. He finished the last fourth of the novel in Germany. He wrote the
last few chapters of the Noli in Wilhelmsfeld in April- June, 1886.
In Berlin during the winter days of February 1886. Rizal made the final
revisions on the manuscript of the Noli. Sick and penniless, he saw no hope of
having it published, so that in a momentary fit of desperation, he almost hurled it
into the flames. Years later he told his good friend and former classmate,
Fernando Canon: “I did not believe that Noli Me Tangere would ever be published
when I was in Berlin, broken- hearted, weakened, and discouraged from hunger
and deprivation. I was on the point of throwing my work into the fire as a thing
accursed and fit only to die”.

Viola, Savior of the Noli. In the midst of his despondency and misery, Rizal
received a telegram from Dr. Maximo Viola who was coming to Berlin. This friend
of Rizal was a scion of a rich family of San Miguel, Bulacan. When he arrived in
Berlin shortly before Christmas Day of 1887, he was shocked to find Rizal living in
poverty and deplorably sickly due to lack of proper nourishment.
Upon seeing his talented friend’s predicament, Viola, being loaded with
ample funds, gladly agreed to finance the printing cost of the Noli. He also
loaned Rizal some cash money for living expenses. Thus it came to pass that Rizal
and Viola happily celebrated the Christmas of 1886 in Berlin with a sumptuous
feast.
After the Christmas season, Rizal put the finishing touches on his novel. To
save printing expenses, he deleted certain passages in his manuscript, including
a whole chapter- “Elias and Salome”.
On February 21, 1887, the Noli was finally finished and ready for printing.
With Viola, the savior of the Noli, Rizal went to different printing shops in Berlin to
survey the cost of printing. After a few days of inquiries they finally found a
printing shop- Berliner Buchdruckrei-Action Gesselschaft- which charged the
lowest rate, that is, 300 pesos for 2000 copies of the novel.

Rizal Suspected as Frenchy Spy. During the printing of the Noli, a rare
incident happened to Rizal. One morning the chief of police Berlin paid a sudden
visit to Rizal’s boarding house and requested to see the latter’s passport.
Unfortunately, Rizal could not produce a passport, for he had none- in those days
it was possible to travel without a passport. The police chief then told him to
secure a passport within four days, otherwise he would be deported.
Immediately, Rizal, accompanied by Viola went to the Spanish embassy to
seek the help of the Spanish ambassador the Count of Benomar, who promised to
attend to the matter. But the ambassador failed to keep his promise, for it turned
out that he had no power to issue required passport.
At the expiration of the four- day ultimatum, Rizal presented himself at the
office of the German police chief, apologizing for his failure to obtain a passport
and politely asked the latter why he was to be deported when he had not
committed any crime. The police chief informed him that he had received
intelligence reports that he (Rizal) had made frequent visits to the villages and
little towns in the rural areas, thereby arousing the German government’s
suspicion that he was a French spy, in as much as he entered Germany from Paris,
where he resided for some years and was apparently a lover of France, whose
language and culture he knew so much. At that time the relations between France
and Germany were strained on account of Alsace- Lorraine.
Rizal, in fluent German Language, explained to the police chief he was not
French spy, but was a Filipino physician and scientist, particularly an ethnologist.
As an ethnologist, he visited the rural areas of the countries he visited to observe
the customs and life- styles of their simple inhabitants. Favorably impressed with
Rizal’s explanation and fascinated by his mastery of the German language and
personal charisma, the police chief was satisfied and allowed him to stay freely in
Germany.

Printing of the Noli Finished. After the incident of his aborted deportation
as a suspected French spy, Rizal, with the help of Viola, supervised the printing of
the Noli. Day by day, they were at the printing shop proof- reading the printed
pages.
On March 21, 1887, the Noli Me Tangere came off the press. Rizal
immediately sent the first copies of the printed novel to his intimate friends,
including Blumentritt, Dr. Antonio Ma. Regidor, G. Lopez Jaena, Mariano Ponce,
and Felix R. Hidalgo. In his letter to Blumentritt, dated March 21, 1887, he said: “I
am sending you a book. It is my first book, though I have already written much
before it and received some prizes in literary competitions. It is the first impartial
and bold book on the life of the Tagalog. The Filipinos will find it the history of the
last ten years. I hope you will notice how different is my descriptions from those
of other writers. The government and the friars will probably attack the work,
refuting my arguments; but I trust in the God of Truth and in the persons who
have actually seen the suffering at close range. I hope I can answer all the
concepts which have been fabricated to malign us”.

On March 29, 1887, Rizal, in token of his appreciation and gratitude, gave
Viola the galley proofs of the Noli carefully rolled around the pen that he used
in writing it and a complimentary copy, with the following inscription: “To my
dear friend, Maximo Viola, the first to read and appreciate my work – Jose Rizal”.

The Title of the Novel. The title Noli Me Tangere is a Latin phrase which
means “Touch Me Not”. It is not originally conceived by Rizal, for he admitted
taking it from the Bible.
Rizal, writing to Felix R. Hidalgo in French on March 5, 1887, said: “Noli Me
Tangere, words taken from the Gospel of Saint Luke, signify “do not touch me”. In
citing the Biblical source, Rizal made a mistake. It should be the Gospel of St.
John (Chapter 20, Verses 13 to 17). According to St. John, on the First Easter
Sunday, St. Mary Magdalene visited the Holy Sepulcher, and to her Our Lord
Jesus, just arisen from the dead, said:
“Touch me not; I am not yet ascended to my Father, but go to my brethren,
and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father; and to my God and your God”.

The Author’s Dedication. Rizal dedicated his Noli Me Tangere to the

Philippines- “To My Fatherland.” His dedication runs as follows:
Recorded in the history of human sufferings is a cancer so malignant a
character that the least touch irritates it and awakens in it the sharpest pains.
Thus, how many times, when in the midst of modern civilizations I have wished to
call thee before me, now to accompany me in memories, now to compare thee to
other countries, hath thy dear image presented itself showing a social cancer like
to that other!.
Desiring the welfare which is our own, and seeking the best treatment. I
will do with thee what the ancients did with their sick, exposing them on the steps
of the temple so that everyone who came to invoke the Divinity might offer them
a remedy.
And to this end, I will strive to reproduce thy condition faithfully, without
discriminations; I will raise a part of the veil that covers the evil, sacrificing to
truth everything, even vanity itself, since, as thy son I am conscious that I also
suffer thy defects and weaknesses.

The “Noli”” Based on Truth. The Noli Me Tangere, unlike many works of
fictional literature, was a true story of Philippine conditions during the last
decades of Spanish rule. The places, the characters, and the situations really
existed. “The facts I narrate there,” said Rizal, “are all true and have happened; I
can prove them.”
The characters- Ibarra, Maria Clara, Elias, Tasio, Capitan Tiago, Padre
Damaso, Padre Salvi, etc. – were drawn by Rizal from persons who actually
existed during his times, Maria Clara was Leonor Rivera, although in real life she
became unfaithful, unlike the heroine of the novel, and married an Englishman.
Ibarra and Elias represented Rizal himself. Tasio the philosopher was his elder
brother, Paciano, Padre Salvi was identified by Rizalists as Padre Antonio
Piernavieja, the hated Augustinian friar in Cavite who was killed by the patriots
during the Revolution. Capitan Tiago was Capitan Hilario Sunico of San Nicolas.
Dona Victorina was Dona Agustina Medel. The two brothers Basilio and Crispin
were the Crisostomo brothers of Hagonoy. Padre Damaso was typical of a
domineering friar during the days of Rizal, who was arrogant, immoral, and anti-
Filipino.
 Rizal’s Friends Praise the Noli. The friends of Rizal hailed the novel, praising
it in glowing colors. As to be expected, Rizal’s enemies condemned it. Rizal
anticipated the vitriolic attacks of his enemies, who were sore to be told the truth
of their evil ways. As he told Blumentritt: “The government and the friars will
probably attack the work, refuting my statements, but I trust in the God of Truth
and in the persons who have actually seen our sufferings.”
Of the numerous congratulatory letters received by Rizal from his friends
about the Noli, that from Blumentritt was significant. “First of all,” wrote
Blumentritt, “accept my cordial congratulations for your beautiful novel about
customs which interest me extraordinarily. Your work, as we Germans say, has
been written with the blood of the heart, and so the heart also speaks. I continue
reading it with much interest, and I shall beg to ask you now and then for an
explanation when I find words unknown to me; for instance, the word filibustero
must have certain meaning in the Philippines that I do not find in the Spanish of
the Peninsular or in that of the Spanish peoples of America.”