BARLAAN, URBANA AT BASIO: ‘THREE PHILIPPINE PROTO-NOVELS Resil B. Mojares LITERARY histories almost invariaby mention three Tagalog works produced by priests as ‘forerunners’ of the Philippine novel. These are Jesuit Antonio de Borja’s Barlaan at Josaphat (1712), Secular Modesto De Castro’s Urbana at Feliza (1864), and Franciscan Miguel Lucio y Bustamante’s Si Tandang Basio Macu- nat (1885). Yet, curiously, not much has been said, by way of sustained analysis, about these worksand the exact nature of their importance. Perhaps this is because the student is imme- diately tempted to summarily dispose of these books as conventional expressions of Catholic propaganda. It is the object of this paper to view these works at closer range: to show that they have value, firstly, as sociohistorical documents, and, secondly, as literary works in themselves, particularly in so far as they are guideposts in the development of that ‘realism’ which was to reach its culmination in the novels of Jose Rizal and those of Tagalog writers in the first years of the twentieth century Bazlaan at Josaphat Aral na tunay na totoong pag aacay sa tauo nang manga cabanalang gaua nang manga maloualhating santos na sina Barlaan at Josa- phat (True Doctrine regarding the right con- duct of human life, derived from the holy deeds of Saints Barlaam and Josaphat) was published in Manila in 1712, the work of the Jesuit Antonio de Borja. It is supposed to be a translation into Tagalog of St. John Dama- scene’s Greek redaction of a narrative popular in various forms in medieval ecclesiastical and secular literature. The 1837 edition of this work itself states that it is a translation from the work of St. John Damascene (c. 676-749? ). It is to be noted, though, that the authorship of the original Greek version, now genera ‘This content downloaded from 202.92.130,56 on Wed, 31 Aug 2016 04: ‘All use subject to http//about jst Philippine Quarterly of Culture and Society 4 (1976) 46 - 54 ly considered to be based on the Georgian, remains amatter of controversy (Lang 1966:19-41). Its ultimate source is an account of Buddha's youth (possibly the Sanskrit Lalita Vistara), the story of which was transmitted throughout a large area, adapted in Iranian, Pehlevi, Syriac and Arabic versions, probably as early as the sixth century; readapted in Georgian some- time in the ninth and tenth centuries; translated into Greek in the tenth or eleventh; and into Latin and Spanish shortly after." This romance was widely disseminated in Spain and used by a number of Spanish writers of the 13th and 14th centuries (Chandler and Schwartz 1961: 159, 160, 163). Lope de Vega himself used the tale in his play, Barlaam y Josafa (1618). It is then almost inevitable, considering the peda- gogical value of the tale, that it was introduced by Spanish friars into the Philippines. The Christian recension of the Barlaam story is a metaphrastic, didactic narrative which tells ofthe triumph of the ‘saints’ Barlaam and Josa- phat in converting heathen India to Christianity. Josaphat, the sole heir of King Abenir of India, is raised in a well-guarded palace so as to iso- late him from the experience of death, pain and suffering, and to keep him away from the Christians who were then making inroads into the kingdom. Abenir is troubled by a prophecy at the child’s birth that the child will grow up to be a Christian. Despite these precautions, however, Josaphat gets to have his encounter with the realities of mortal life when he meets a poor, infirm man on the road. A holy man in the neighboring country of Senaar (Ceylon), named Barlaam, gets to know about Josaphat’s desire for spiritual enlightenment. By a ruse, Barlaam gains access to the palace and forth- with teaches the young man the message of Christ. Josaphat is converted and later takes it org/termsMojares / BARLAAN, URBANA AT BASIO 47 upon himself to persuade his father into seeing the goodness of the Christian life. Various episodes in the book—usually taking the form of debates or ‘dialogues’ on faith and dogma- finally lead to Abenir's conversion, after his repeated efforts at disproving Christianity have failed. The story then ends with Josaphat's decision to forsake his now-Christian kingdom for the life of a hermit, his final reunion with his teacher Barlaam, and their death and con- secration as holy men. This, in gist, is the narrative of Fr. Borja’s work, as based on a fairly substantial section- by-section summary provided by Rufino Ale- jandro and Juliana Pineda of an 1837 edition of the work (Alejandro and Pineda 1950:18- 39). Another summary and an excerpt (ch. XXXIV) are in BS. Medina 1972:91-98. No copies of this work are in the major Filipiniana collections of the country. A copy of the 1837 edition, printed in Manila by Imp. de D. Jose Maria Dayot, is with the Valladolid Collection in Spain. Borja’s translation is obviously based on the Greek version or ultimately derived from it through the mediation of Latin or Spanish sources, as can be judged, for instance, on the basis of Borja’s use of names: Abenir (Gr. Abenner) Senaar (Gr. Senaar), Araquez (Gr. Araches). Its narrative content appears to be fairly substantial, ascan be appreciated through comparison with the Old Georgian Balavariani, aversion considered superior to the Greek in its literary artistry and in the manner it preserves the narrative values of the original non-Christ- ian tale (Lang 1966). But one has the im- pression, too, that there is in Borja’s work, as in the Greek version, a thick overlay of dis- sertations on Catholic dogma and extracts or quotations from the Bible. This, of course, is to be expected for Borja's motivation must have been mainly evangelistic. The Barlaam romance must have presented itself to Fr. Borja as a perfectly relevant piece of work to disseminate in the light of the con- ditions of mission work during his time. At the tum of the eighteenth century, the Jesuits were still actively engaged in laying down the foun- dation of their religious province in the Philip- pines: establishing missions, erecting churches, instructing converts, and warding off the dangers of Moro raids and recalcitrant pagan cults. The tale with its story of the successful conversion of a heathen country must have appeared to Fr. Borja and other Spanish mis- sionaries as a particularly appropriate model for the work they were engaged in at the same time that it provided them with an appealing vehicle for the dissemination of the abstract concepts of Christian dogma. In fact, at least two others, both friars, used the Barlaam story in the seventeenth century. The Augustinian Agustin Mejia, who died in 1630, is reported to have left behind a manuscript, Vida de Sax Barlam y Josaphat, in ‘elegant and correct Hoke verse’ (Perez. 1901:79). The Dominican Baltasar de Santa Cruz is also recorded to have published in Manila in 1692 a Spanish translation of Jacobo Biblio’s Latin rendition of the Greek version of the same narrative (J.T. Medina 1964:74). Antonio de Borja (1650-1711) left Spain for the Philippines in 1671 and took his final vows in 1687. He is reported to have directed the building of the church in Temnate, part of the Silang residence in Cavite, in 1692. His ex- periences with mission-building must have gone beyond mere routine for he is reported to have been sent by Governor-General Zabalburu as arbiter in a dispute between the Sultans of the Magindanaus and Sulus in 1704 (De la Costa 1961:475, 541, 625). ‘The choice and the character of the Barlaam tale, therefore, logically draw from his ex- periences as well as the conditions and require- ments of missionary work at the turn of the eighteenth century. For the friars of the time, the Philippines was a religious frontier — the ‘India’ of the Barlaam romance. Apart from its literary values therefore, Borja’s work tells us something about the author's perceptions of his mission and milieu and about the historico- religious conditions of the time. Urbana at Feliza Pagsusulatan nang Dalauang Binibini na si Urbana at ni Felisa na nagtuturo ng mabuting kaugalian (The Correspondence of the two ladies, Urbana and Feliza, teaching Good ‘This content downloaded from 202.09.130,56 on Wed, 31 Aug 2016 04:44:25 UTC ‘Alluse subject 0 hupy/aboutstor.org/terms48 PHILIPPINE QUARTERLY OF CULTURE AND SOCIETY Manners, 1864) comes a century and a half after Borja’s work and is clearly the product of a different stage of Philippine church history. This handbook of manners, characterized by an equanimity of style and thought, reflects a community in which Church-taught precepts of thought and behavior are already fairly well established, making for a way of life that is decorous and almost ceremonial Written a manera de novela moral educativa, it uses as framework a series of letters ex- changed among a number of persons, princi ly the sisters Urbana and Feliza. Unlike Bar- laan at Josaphat, this is an original work with a local, contemporary setting: in the 1850s, Urbana, a student in Manila, writes letters to her family in Paombong (Bulacan), counselling her younger sister, Feliza, as well as the other members of the family, on the requirements of the virtuous life. Actually, beyond the facts just stated, this proto-novel exhibits little circumstantiality, whether personal or social, in the lives of its characters. Its ‘narrative’ is merely the slender frame on which the work's didactic content is hung. The letters are wholly concerned with the highly specific detailing of the rules of correct conduct, the do's and don't’s of Christian behavior at home, in school, in church, and in the community. These prescriptive discourses are perfunctorily bracketed by standard salu- tary and closing addresses which reveal little of the individual circumstances of the characters. There is no sustained attempt at individuali- zing a character or developing a story. What we have in this direction is almost wholly adven- titious. Urbana is studying in a religious school in Manila. A woman completely devoted to her Christian duties, her letters speak endlessly of the lessons in religious obligation and decorous social behavior she has learned in school. At the end of the book, she says that she is joining 2 beaterio (a community of pious lay-women without religious vows). Feliza, on the other hand, looks up to her sister as a model of character and actively seeks out her counsel. There are two ‘events’ in the book: the court- ship and marriage of Feliza, and the death of ‘the father. It is obvious though that these are brought in primarily as occasions for instruction. The marriage of Feliza to Amadeo provides Urbana (and the author) with the occasion for discoursing on the proper conduct of a woman in receiving a suitor, the correct choice of a mate, the role of parents in arranging the marriage, the duties of husband and wife to- wards each other and their children, and other related matters. The death of the father supplies the occasion for the discussion of how to die, what parents must do at the time of death, how to behave at funerals, and so on down the line. Here, one has a clear instance of the com- plete subordination of the narrative to the book's didactic purposes. That the father’s death is a mere peg for instruction can be seen in the fact that Urbana is not at her father’s side at the time of his death, or even at his funeral, for curiously unconvincing reasons: that she was informed about the passing away of her father only after the burial so as not to disturb her in her studies. One suspects, though, that the real reason is that the author has to keep Urbana in Manila, and Feliza in Paom- bong, so that the letter-writing can continue, and the moral instruction can go on undis- turbed. Furthermore, it is a complete violation of verisimilitude for Urbana’s letter over her father’s death to be filled with practically nothing but detached, pontifical counsel on such topics as how people should conduct themselves at funerals. All of this, of course, can be explained by the fact that Fr. de Castro is not centrally concemed with writing an epistolary novel but with providing his readers with a moral guidebook. Decorum is the-dominant theme of the book. Its exposition of the duties of the individual to his fellowmen, family, Church and Government, is governed by a concem for the maintenance of a moral and social equilibrium. In this res- pect, Urbana at Feliza is a thoroughly con- servative work Fr. Modesto de Castro, a secular priest, was a native of Bilan (Laguna), an alumnus of the Real Colegio de San Jose, and cura parroco assigned to the Cathedral in Manila and, later, to Naic (Cavite). Cironicler Salvador Pons, writing in 1900, already acknowledged Fr. de ‘This concent downloaded from 202.99.130.56 on Wed, 31 Aug 2016 04-44-25 LTC ‘Alluse subject to http:/ahout jstor-arg/termsMojares / BARLAAN, URBANA AT BASIO 49 Castro's fame as an axtor clasico, famed for his sermons and his ‘precise and elegant’ writings (Pons 1900:25-26). De Castro's works include Coleccion de Sermones (1878), Exposicion de las Siete Palabras (1887), and Novena a San Isidro (1888), all in Tagalog. Not much is known about the man but it appears that ‘classicism’ marked not only his style but also his thought. In this respect, his works are a quintessential expression of the ‘custom and ceremony’ Catholicism cultivated in Philippine society. De Castro is concemed with ideal norms of behavior and thus operates on a plane somewhat removed from the actualities and strains of social reality. An ob- sessive concern with smooth interpersonal relations within the context of a hierarchical order governed by a religious and colonial power ultimately makes for a kind of unreality which strains the work. This is perhaps un- wittingly and obliquely exemplified in the dis- sociation of the book’s didactic content and the logic of its narrative, as in the case of Urbana’s response to her father’s death. In this respect, the book remains expressive of that ‘anti-realist’ impulse in the literature of the Spanish period. It marks an advance over Barlaan at Josaphat in its use of local characters, setting and con- temporary manners, and in its language, but it nevertheless remains well within the tradition of the church literature of the Spanish period in its dogmatic, prescriptive attitude, its avoidance of basic social conflicts, and in that idealization of behavior which dignifies but, in excess, also artificializes and trivializes human relations. Avery popular work that ran through several editions — it was also translated into Ilocano in the nineteenth century (Yabes 1936:43) — Urbana at Feliza represents that moral universe which figures prominently in early twentieth- century Philippine fiction, But in these later works, where characters are agents of action rather than mere receivers and implementers of moral verities, this moral universe is not to remain intact and inviolate. In both these facts lie the value and limitation of Fr. de Castro's work. Si Tandang Basio Macunat Published two decades after Urbana at Feliza, Fr. Miguel Lucio y Bustamante’s Si Tandang Basio Macunat (1885) has a clearer, more direct ‘narrative’ but it is still cut out of the same didactic mold as the earlier novel. It speaks in the first person and tells of how, in his travels through the country, the speaker (who is presumably the author himself) came to the town of Tanay, in the district of Morong (Rizal), where he stayed for two weeks and got acquainted with a wise old man named Gervasio Macunat, with whom he had discussions on subjects like the customs of the Tagalogs. The speaker tells Tandang Basio that if only the old man had studied Spanish he would have easily become a directorcillo and thus would not have to work hard on the land to support. his family. At this remark, Tandang Basio be- comes angry and goes on to politely explain why he has no intention whatsoever of learning Spanish or acquiring higher education. The ‘story’ that Basio tells the speaker — which also involves an ‘inner story’ supposedly written by Basio’s father — comprises almost nine-tenths of the whole book. Basio is the son of poor but virtuous serfs who sent him to school to learn the rudiments of education (read, write, count), daily quizzed him on his lessons, and taught him his religious and household duties. (With respect to these precepts, this work does not differ from Urbana at Feliza.) Basio recalls fondly his school- teacher, Cacang Yoyo, who was respected by the town though he knew no Spanish because he was not pretentious or arrogant (a phrase Basio uses to describe him is ualang sariling calooban, which means literally ‘no will of his own’): he did not dress up or conduct himself to be like the Capitan or even the Cura (unlike some natives — Basio says — who seem to forget that they are as dark-skinned as himself, casing-itim co), and that when it came to teach ing or getting people to do things Cacang Yoyo never did anything unless he had the prior counsel of ‘our courtly Capitan’ and, above all, ‘our most respected Padre Cura’. Basio proudly shows off to the speaker his ‘This content downloaded from 202.92.130,56 on Wed, 31 Aug 2016 04:44:25 UTC ‘Alluse subject (o hupsiabout stor org/terms50 PHILIPPINE QUARTERLY OF CULTURE AND SOCIETY seven children whom he has raised the way his parents raised him, and wams the speaker not to address them in Spanish for he does not want them to lear even a single word of the language. Basio explain: Ang castila . .. castila, at ang indio ay indio. Ang ongo . . . ang ongo, i, sootan man ninyo nang baro at salaoual, ay ongo rin at hindi tauo, (Lucio 1885:16. ‘The Spaniard ... is a Spaniard, the indio an indio. The ogre though you may dress it up in shirt and pants, is still an ogre and not a person.”) ‘The speaker remarks that Spanish can enhance the native’s knowledge but Basio insists he does not want the Tagalogs, or the indio in general, to learn Spanish. He says, quoting his father: Ang mga tagalog, and mga indio baa. . . na humikiwalay caya sa calabao, ay ang cadalasa, i, naguiguing masama at palamarang tauo sa Dios at sa Hari. (Ibid: 17. ‘The Tagalogs, the indios . . . who forsake the carabao, chances are, will go astray and become disloyal to God and the King.’) ‘The following day, Basio reads to the speaker an illustrative story. This is a tale supposedly preserved by Basio’s father (Antonio Macunat) in a book which the author-speaker now tran- scribes in the novel, ‘with nothing added or taken’. It is entitled Buhay nang isang maganac na tagerito sa Tanay (The Life of a family in Tanay). It begins thus: ‘In 1830, there was in Tanay a family that was prosperous and kind . . ” and goes on to tell the story of how great misfortunes are visited upon this God- fearing and law-abiding family by the mis- adventures of the son, Prospero, whom they had sent to Manila to study. There, Prospero is drawn to worldly pleasures, abandons his studies, falls into debt and commits various misdeeds, and is only saved from going to jail when his parents, selling some of their lands and animals, bail him out. Brought back to the province, seemingly contrite, Prospero soon slides back into his indolent and profligate ways until his father, broken by labor and heartsick, dies. Again, Prospero promises to re- form only to renege on the vow once more, falling into debt and committing crimes of virtue against women. He is brought to Manila and jailed, and his mother and sister sell everything they have left in a fruitless attempt to save him. The whole story comes to an end with the death of Prospero’s virtuous sister, and finally of his mother. Prospero himself is sent to a penal colony where he dies. The narrator of this story (Basio’s father) says that the root cause of all these misfortunes is the inordinate desire of the parents to send their son to Manila, not paying heed to the counsels of the Cura and the devout daughter, Felicitas. They aspired for a level not proper to them. The Cura had advised against sending Prospero to Manila be- cause the Cura had ‘seen’ that though Prospero was an obedient child he was ‘somewhat weak in the head’ and, thus, would only acquire bad habits in Manila. The Cura says that it is ‘a great mistake to hope that a tamarind tree will bear guavas or that the guava tree bear tamarind’ (Ibid:26). Such vain ambition, the Cura says, is a common fault of all indios. When Cabesang Dales (Prospero’s father), with due deference, remarks that the Cura seemed to suggest that the native should not aspire for the Spaniard’s level of learning, the Cura says that this is not, at all, what he means. He believes, he says, in the natives’ going into the professions but he says that what he is con- demning is the attitude of the indio who, if he has a little money, immediately sends his sons to Manila even if ‘they have heads as hard as stones and are thoroughly immature’ (Ibid:28). He says that of 1000 natives studying in Manila, 950 are simply wasting their parents’ money. And he criticizes those students who come back neglectful of their religious duties, who cock and strut, act knowledgeable and re- belliously interfere in all things, thus exerting a bad influence on the townspeople. Tandang Basio himself concludes the whole story by saying that he will not have the indios send their children to schoo! to learn Spanish ‘or whatever knowledge not proper to their status or to their being indios.” Again, he in- vokes his father’s lesson: Ang Hari, ay mangasiwa sa caniyang pinagharian; ang anloagui, ay maghasa nang maghasa nang cani- ‘yang manga pait at catam; ang ama’t, ina, ay mag- ‘lila sa canilang manga anac; at ang manga indio, ay mag-alaga tang canilang manga calabao (Ibid:91. ‘This concent downloaded from 202.9.130.56 on Wed, 31 Aug 2016 04-44-25 TC Allluse subject io http://about stor.org/termsMojares / BARLAAN, “The King attends to his kingdom, the carpenter sharpens his chisels and plancs, parents serve their children, and the indios take care of their carabao.") ‘The speaker himself is non-committal but closes the book with the statement that he cannot, even to this day, forget his friend, Tandang Basio, and ‘his straight and correct reasoning.” It is not surprising that Rizal and his con- temporaries found the arguments of this book obnoxious. (Rizal's satirical reference to Fr. Lucio's work is to be found in Ch. IX of El Filibusterismo, 1891). W.E. Retana says that in maintaining that ‘the indio should not go out of the place of his birth; that knowledge for him is dangerous; that he has no better com- panion than the carabao and no truer counselor than the friar,’ this book made many Filipinos enemies of the friars (Retana 1906:942, 1016). Fr. Miguel Lucio y Bustamante, born in Spain in 1842, served as priest in the 1860s and 70s in such places as Santa Cruz and Magdalena (Laguna), Paquil, San Felipe de Mandaloyon, and Tanay (Rizal) (Gomez 1880:750). He is also credited with a novel of manners, Benito y Rosalia (1882), and a handbook entitled Breves Instrucciones a los Jovenes Religiosos Pranciscanos destinados a la cura de almas en Filipinas (1886). In this latter work, where he devotes a chapter to a character sketch of the indio, is made further explicit Fr. Lucio’s con- descending attitude towards the natives whom he refers to as unos nifios grandes (Lucio 1886:29-32), Si Tandang Basio Macunat clearly belongs to a period different from that of the two earlier works. If Barlaan belongs to a period of pioneering evangelization, and Urbana to a period of settled orthodoxy, Fr. Lucio’s work is reflective of a time when the friar-imposed order was already subjected to the strains of liberal assertiveness on the part of formerly docile parishioners. It suggests the time of Rizal, M.H. del Pilar, and the critics of monastic supremacy. Its criticism of the dangers of ‘too much education’ for the indio can be seen as a reaction to a situation in which Filipino stu- dents, educated in Manila or abroad, were beginning to express ideas and sentiments sop- versive of the role of the friars in Philippine URBANA AT BASIO SI society. Though the particular impetus which gave rise to the novel may have been the friars’ opposition to the teaching of Spanish to the natives — an issue of controversy during Fr. Lucio's time — thisnovel is essentially a defense of a colonial structure founded on, among others, ideas of racial superiority and monastic power. It is to be noted that in the period 1867-1889 at least fourteen decrees were enacted pertaining to the instruction of Spanish in the schools but it ‘appears that this policy was largely frustrated by the opposition of the friars who believed that the teaching of Spanish (which, concomitantly, prepared the way for higher education) would sow liberalism and rebelliousness among the natives, thus under- mining monastic control in the islands (Frei 1959: $30). In retrospect, then, the development that is illustrated by the motives and content of the three books studied in this paper parallels stages of church and social history in the Philippines in the Spanish era. Proto-Realism Literary genetics is always a complicated matter, particularly as concerns the period we are studying. The three books have all been referred to as ‘novels’ but they are such largely in the context of an expanded understanding of this concept. Exemplum, dialogo, epistolario, cuadro de costumbres: these medieval prose forms can be applied, in varying measure to these books. They are novelas in so far as they are either sustained narratives or long prose works with a narrative — or a semblance of narrative — as framework. Barlaan at Josaphat has been called a ‘coe lection of exempla’ by historians of Spanish literature in so far as it strings together fables, apologues, or stories with a moral point. But it is also, in itself, one long sustained narrative, a romance — in so far as it deals with marvellous happenings set in a pscudc-historical, mythical past — although one in which the element of the supernatural is not overtly exploited. It is to be noted that the conversion of India in Barlaan has no historical basis. The ‘saints’ Barlaam and Josaphat, themselves, are no carly Christian saints but Christianized legendary figures based on ‘This coment downloaded from 202,92.130,56 on Wed, 31 Aug 2016 04:44:25 LTC All use subject to htp://about.jstor.org/temms52 PHILIPPINE QUARTERLY OF CULTURE AND SOCIETY the Buddha. It was not until the nineteenth century, though, that the cult surrounding these two figures was challenged as to its authenticity. It is a novel in so far as it is a sustained prose narrative, with underpinnings of verisimilitude, but its lack of the values of historicity, con- temporaneity, and originality — in so far as the narrative itself is concerned — puts it out- side the mainstream of literary realism which is to find its culmination in the modem novel. Its value in literature is further diminished by the fact that it is a translation of an apocryphal story related strictly for its didactic values. It is largely on the basis of the fact that it is the ‘first’ printed prose narrative in Tagalog that it has been assigned the historical importance it now has in Philippine literature. Urbana at Feliza is, in many respects, a distinct advance over Barlaan. It is an original work that makes use of local and contemporary characters, setting, and plot situations. It is, of course, written in a conventional mode (epistolario) and for a didactic purpose but these, in themselves, need not detract from its value as a literary piece. While it speaks of norms of behavior that appear stylized and idealized its rich detailing of conduct and customs in ordinary life (taking care of one’s body, cating, visiting friends, going out for a stroll, etc.) makes for that value of cir. cumstantiality lacking in the narrative itself. It is also written in Tagalog with that kind of case and suppleness that heralds the possibilities of the language as medium for the novel. Si Tandang Basio Macunat, in its turn, advances the technical gains in Urbana at Feliza. Again, it makes use of the local and the con- temporary in its choice of place, time, people, and situations. Its narrative is more consciously fleshed out — being free from the static, mechanical framework of an epistolario. It, of course, belongs essentially to the same mode as Barlaan and Urbana in its employment of the dialogo — a method of argument and pre- sentation that harks back to Plato — in unfold- ing its ‘truth’. Thus, we have the set situations of Tandang Basio ‘conversing’ with the speaker, and of Basio’s father with Basio and the speaker through the medium of a written ‘story’. (In fact, Fr. Lucio refers to his work as, a salita, that is, a ‘dialogue’ or ‘speech’.) Des- pite such conventional devices the book is more substantial in the circumstantiality of its outer and inner narratives. One can, for instance, note here the use of the exemplum. These tales — favored by medieval preachers as devices to decorate a sermon or illustrate a moral — are cited as a germ of the novel in so far as they are earthy contemporary sketches of common life (Schlauch 1963:40-47). But in Barlaan what we have are unoriginal, stock tales from the Bible and other religious sources. This is also true of Urbana where illustrations are, as a rule, taken from conventional foreign sources. If Urbana is a fresher work it is because of the manner in which it is enlivened by naturalistic, elegantly-expressed analogies and metaphors. To cite an example: Houag tulutang mamintanang palagui, sapagea,t, ang dalagang namimintana, ay caparis nang isang buig nang uvas, na bibitin-bitin sa sanga sa tabi nang daan, na nag-aanyayang papitas sa sino mang macaibig. (Castro 1864:102. ‘Do not allow yourself to look out of the window often because a young woman who sits by the window is like a bunch of grapes hanging from a branch at the roadside, inviting to be picked by anyone who might want it. But it is in Si Tandang Basio Macunat with its extended ‘sociological’ exemplum about the family of Cabesang Dales that we have more distinctly foreshadowed that direct, sustained portrayal of common life which we associate with the realist novel. In its reportorial ap- proach, emphasizing direct. personal obser- vation or knowledge of events, and in its occasional realization of milieu, one can al- ready perceive the movement towards the more developed realism of such early secular Tagalog novels as Valeriano Hemandez-Pefla’s Ang Kasaysayan ng Magkaibigang si Nena at si ‘Neneng (1903) and others. Fr. Lucio’s contributions are ironic for Retana records that Fr. Lucio believed that novels, in general, are bad for the intelligence. For which reason, he took great care in writing nothing that would be contrary to ‘the faith or sound customs’, writing only for the sake of ‘This content downloaded from 202.92.130,56 on Wed, 31 Aug 2016 04:44:25 UTC Alluse subject to htto:/about stor org/termsMojares / BARLAAN, URBANA AT BASIO 33 ‘passing the time’ (Retana 1906:942). But then, also, Fr. Lucio, in contrast to Borja and De Castro, wrote his work with a consciousness of the novel form of his time and with the intention of practising or approximating this form. Deficient then as these ‘novels’ are in the conception or execution of social, historical, and psychological realities, they are nevertheless important as touchstones, as well as agents, in the development of prose fiction in the country. Conclusions We have endeavoured to present in this study of three early prose narratives two main con- clusions. First: that these three works reflect, albeit obliquely, distinct phases in the history of church and society during the Spanish era. They are expressions of the historically-con- ditioned consciousness of their authors, all of whom are clergymen, members of a governing class, They are, in this sense also, limited visions of the realities of their time. Second: that these works demonstrate perceptible stages in the development of ‘literary realism’. In this one discerns such changes as shifts from the use of foreign to local materials, from hagiography to common life, from the reela- boration of conventional truths to the more direct treatment of social issues, from a stiff, formal language to a looser, more colloquial speech, and others. In all these shifts, factors other than those internal to literary form are obviously at work, but this is perhaps a matter that can be given more adequate treatment elsewhere. ‘These three works are not the only ‘proto- novels’ in the period before 1900 though they are the most often cited ones. It is also not our intention to argue that the full-blown novels of a later time consciously and directly drew im- petus from these texts. In fact, it can perhaps be shown that the later novels drew more, and directly, from fully-developed Western models than from these local half-realizations of novelistic form. This is certainly the case of Jose Rizal’s Noli me Tangere (1887) and El Filibusterismo (1891), the works that auspiciously inaugurated the rise of the novel in the Philippines. But the laws of literary his- tory are complex, for works do not remain mere texts but are assimilated into a general consciousness (into ‘tradition’, in the vital sense in which T.S. Eliot has defined it), there to interact with other elements, to direct or redirect, in varying ways and to varying effect, a people’s creative or critical turn of mind. Barlaan, Urbana, and Basio belong to the national consciousness. They are no mere relics of a discredited past, they are living parts of that flawed and changing tradition which we inhabit and which we are continually called upon to extend and improve. REFERENCES Alejandro, Rufino and Juliana C. Pineda 1950 “Ang Ating Panitiken. Manila, Bookman, Inc. Castro, Modesto De. (1864) Pagsusulaian nang Dalawang.Rinibini na si af ni Fela... Mania, Imprenta y Libreria de J. Martinez, np. 165p. [The following dates of publication have been re- corded: 1852, 1856, 1863, 1864, 1877, 1889. It appears, though, that 1864 is the most likely year of its first publication.] Chandler, Richard B. and Kessel Schwartz. 1961 "A New History af Spanish Literature. Baton Rouge, Louisiana State University Press. 696p. Costa, H. de la. 1961 The Jesuits in the Philippines; 1581-1768. Cambridge, Harvard University Press. 702p. Frei, Emest J. 1959. ‘The Historical Development of the Phili National Language. Manila, Bureau of Print- ing. 92p. Gomez Platero, Eusebio. rn 1880 Catalogo Biografico de los Religiosos Fran- ciscenos de a Provincia de San Gregori ‘Magno de Filipinas... Manila, Imprenta del Real Colegio de Santo Tomas. 813p. Lang, David Marshall 1966 The Balavariani (Barlaam and Josaphat); a Tale from the Christian East Translated from the Old Georgian. Berkeley, University of California Press. 187p. ‘This content downloaded from 202.92.130.56 on Wed, 31 Aug 2016 04:44:25 UTC Alluse subject to http:/about stor org/terms,$4 PHILIPPINE QUARTERLY OF CULTURE AND SOCIETY Lucio y Bustamante, Miguel. 1889 Si Tandang Basio Macimat, Manila, Lap, de ‘Amigos del Pais. 92 I. [Typewritten copy in the Filipiniana Division, University of the Philippines Library, Dilirian, Quezon City. 1886 Breves Instrucciones alos Jovenes Religiosos Franciscanos destinados a la cura de almat inas. Manila, Imprenta de “Amigos 192p. Medina, B. S., Jr. 1972 Tatlong Panahon ng Panitikax. Manila, National Book Store, Inc. 512p. Medina, 5. T. 1964 La Imprenta en Manila desde sus Origenes hasta 1810. Amsterdam,N. Israel. 280, 203p. [Reprint of editions pul ed in 1896 and 1904.1 7 ibliografico de los Reli 1901 Catal Bio-Bibliografico »s Religiosos Aguithos do la Morincia del Santisino ‘ombre de Jesus de las Islas Filipinas. Manila, Est. tip. del Colegio de Sto. Tomas. 873p. Pons y Torres, Salvador. 1900 “EI Clero Secular ibpino; apuntes,biblio ggaficos y_ biogrficor « Manis, Imp. Ls ‘mocraeia. 141p. Rotana, W. E. i peal ot 1906 Aparato Bibliografico de la Historia Gener: G2 Filipinas... Volumen: segundo, Madrid, Imprenta de Ja Sucesora de M. Minuesa de los Rios. pp. 465-1064. ‘Schlauch, Margaret. 1963 Antecedents of the English Novel, 1400- 1600. London, Oxford University Press. 264p. Yabes, Leopoldo Y. 1936 A Brief Survey of Moko Literature. Manila, ‘The Author. 135p. ‘This content downloaded from 202.92.130,56 on Wed, 31 Aug 2016 04:44:25 LTC All use subject to http:/about,stor.org/terms