The sequel to "El villano del Danubio"

Author(s): Stephen Gilman

Source: Revista Hispánica Moderna , Jan. - Oct., 1965, Año 31, No. 1/4, Homenaje a
Ángel del Río (Jan. - Oct., 1965), pp. 174-184
Published by: University of Pennsylvania Press

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/30206986

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 THE SEQUEL TO <(EL VILLANO DEL DANUBIO>

The documentary pretense offered by the prologue material at the beginning of

the Marco Aurelio con el Relox de Principes 1 is curiously ambiguous. On the one
hand Guevara with an apparently straight face assures the reader that what is to
follow is a translation and stylization of newly discovered writings of the Stoic
Emperor:

Saquile pues del griego con favor de mis amigos, de latin en romance con mis
sudores propios. Sienta pues cada uno que se sintiria sacarle de griego en latin, de
latin en romance, y de romance grossero pornerlo en suaue estilo... 2

But on the other, he speaks on several occasions of <<este mi libro>> and asserts that
he is the author of at least a part of what is to follow:

Espontaneamente confiesso que ni por lo que he escripto ni por lo que he

traduzido ni por lo que he compuesto yo no merezco entre los grandes sabios ser
computado...

The rhetorical strategies which surround this affirmation and denial are exceedingly
complex, surpassing by far those used by such skilled practitioners of the art as
Fernando de Rojas and Juan del Encina. 4 But in the last analysis what the prologue
material amounts to is a tacit assumption by Guevara of the mantle of <<auctoritas>>
belonging to the still legendary Marcus Aurelius. As he himself suggests with asser-
tive modesty, Guevara aspires to be to Charles V what Aristotle was to Alexander
and Plutarch to Trajan, ' and his only path to these heights is to become -and make
his reader believe he has become- Marcus Aurelius. 6
No one was more aware of the logical contradiction inherent in this than Gue-
vara himself. But instead of backing down or shying away he typically attempts to
convert it into a dilemma for the reader. If he should be challenged as being an
amateur scholar or a presumptuous Modem writing in an epoch when there is
nothing left to write <<que no estai escrito>>, he falls back on the documentary
pretense. And if this should be challenged, he accuses the doubters first of denying
the existence of Marcus Aurelius: <Muchos se espantan en oyr doctrina de Marco

1 The following edition has been used: Antonio de Guevara, Marco Aurelio con el
Relox de principes, Sevilla, Cromberger, 1543.
2 In the prologue material there is no foliation so that each quote can only be located
roughly. This particular quotation comes near the end of the (<Pr61ogo sobre la obra)>.
3 From about the middle of the <<Argumento>>. In the <<Pr6logo>> to the Menosprecio
de Corte (ClIsicos castellanos, Madrid, 1942) he refers to <<mi muy famoso libro de Marco
Aurelio>> (p. 12).
4 See the penetrating analysis of Encina's prefatory strategy in J. Richard Andrew's
Yuan del Encina, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1959.
5 Maria Rosa Lida in her comprehensive article on Guevara (<<Antonio de Guevara>>,
RFH, VII, 346 ff.) notes that the authentic writings of Marcus Aurelius were not discovered
and published until 1558.
6 The aspiration to become the Aristotle of the Spanish emperor is even more manifest
in the writings of the Puebla de Montalban's second great contributor to Spanish culture,
Dr. Francisco Hernandez, <<el Protom6dico de las Indias>> (see his Obras completas, Intro-
duction and edition by German Somolinos D'Ardois, Mexico, 1960).

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 EL VILLANO DEL DANUBIO 175

Aurelio en el mundo>. ' Then, if calculated ov

sufficient to silence his opponents, Guevara ha
perverse retort:

Los que dizen que yo solo compuse esta doctrin

lo que dizen, aunque no la intenci6n con que lo
tantas y tan graves sentencias aya yo puesto de
me pusieran los antiguos en roma. 8

Many later Spaniards -Cadalso, Blanco Whit

member of the Generation of '98- were to in
none of them were to defend the reality of
aggressiveness.
The interesting thing about this persistent rh
have succeeded in exactly the way Guevara h
during which the Relox was a European bes
modern <auctor>> replete with philosophical
the newly born and candid reading public be
same way that it believed in the authentic phil
and the printing press were making availabl
Erasmus, Guevara's success as a writer was a
by Gutenberg. ' A few solitary scholars suc
at the counterfeit erudition, but the great
enchanted with a humanism which (as the la
perspicaciously) 10 instead of revealing the alie
the ancients really said, refurbished the com
preceeding century in a new fashioned way.
out loud (as books had always been written) 11
ing exactly what was expected of it yet bols
excursion into the ancient past. With such qual
with success, a corollary acceptance of Gueva
Which is to say he had invented a pretense w
to accept.
One way of characterizing the century wh
and ended with Montaigne was as a crisis of
proverbial formulae which had for so long r
seen to be inapplicable to individual experien

About two-thirds of the way through the <Argu

8 A few lines further down.
9 Guevara, although he directs the Relox (as was
is nonetheless very conscious of the new reading
are many examples such as the following: <<los
obra...>> (Pr6logo general) Or again, just as the R
for the color of ambar, so <<si esta mi escriptura f
sera enojosa...>> The Emperor thus represents for
increased sales!
10 See the article mentioned in note 5.
11 Marshall McLuhan in his Gutenburg Galaxy (Toronto, 1962) comments suggestively
on the hybrid nature of books written in this period, books which in their oral composition
reflect the past yet in their printed diffusion foretell the future. Many of the peculiarities
of La Celestina can better be understood in this light.

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 176 STEPHEN GILMAN RHM, XXXI (1965)

meaning of his mother's precept, <<Arrim

Pairmeno and Sempronio in their mutual
their common death diverge ironically from
Celestina had preached to them. 12 But G
chooses the opposite tack. By taking refuge
by exhibiting himself through them in an <
writes a book which serves as an <<instrumen
is to say that the function of the Relox is t
crisis of their time. By covering his own ins
Guevara provides them with a similar one. A
and occasional notes of humor and erotic ins
assimilation of what the reader wanted to b
and about the world. No wonder that Gueva
immoral 15 and that he in turn was ridicu
taigne! 16
Yet in the very act of constructing his elaborate rhetorical refuge, Guevara
became all the more aware both of his own shortcomings (as compared to Marcus
Aurelius) and of those of the history in which he was forced to live. On the one
hand (in a passage emphasized by Castro) he like other men is <<variable en los
apetitos, profundo en el coraz6n, mudable en los pensamientos y indeterminable en
los fines>. " Other factors, such as his dubiously assertive relation to the noble
Guevara family, "8 the strong possibility that he was conscious of a sconverso>
<<stain>> in his geneology, 19 and a sense of courtly failure and priestly limitations 20
have all been suggested as contributing to the divergence between the man and the
authoritative image he successfully --yet at times hesitantly --sought to project.
But perhaps more fundamental than these personal factors was the awareness,
clearly stated in the above passage, that human existence could not by its very
nature be solidified. As Guevara's generational contemporary Fernando de Rojas 21

12 See my Art of eLa Celestina>>, Madison, 1956, pp. 100-104.

13 Juan Marichal, ((La originalidad renacentista en el estilo de Guevara>>, in La vo-
luntad de estilo, Barcelona, 1957, p. 96. In this sense it corresponds to the social function
of the 19th century novel as analysed by David Riesman in <sThe Oral and Written Tra-
ditions>>, Explorations Six, July, 1956, p. 22 ff.
14 An initial example is the slightly salacious description of the Empress Poppea in
the <<Pr61ogo general>>.
15 <sNo sin causa digo que muchos libros merescian ser rotos o quemados: porque ya
tan sin verguenga: y tan sin conciencia se componen oy libros de amores del mundo: como
se ensefiassen a menospriar el mundo. Compassion es de ver los dias y las noches que
consumen muchos en leer libros vanos: es a saber: a Amadis: a Primaleon, a Duarte: a
Lucenda: a Calixto: con la doctrina delos quales osare dezir: que no passan tiempo:
sino que pierden el tiempo: porque alli no deprenden como se han de apartar delos vicios:
sino que primores ternan para ser mas viciosos>>. (End of <ePrologo general>>).
16 Both references are noted by Maria Rosa Lida.
17 Reloj de principes, BAE, LXV, p. 91. Cited by Americo Castro, <<El villano del
Danubio>> y otros fragmentos, Princeton, 1945, p. xi.
18 Discussed by Maria Rosa Lida, p. 347, and Juan Marichal, p. 84.
19 Both Maria Rosa Lida (p. 348) and Juan Marichal (p. 322, note 7) discuss this
possibility.
20 See Castro, art. cit.
21 Guevara was born in 1480. If we assume that Rojas obtained his Bachelor's degree
in 1499 or thereabouts his date of birth would be in the late '70's. The Bachelor's
degree took ordinarily about six years for completion and in-coming students usually range
from 14 to 17 years of age.

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 EL VILLANO DEL DANUBIO 177

indicates in his revision of Petrarch's De rem

entre los hombres ... ? Quien explanarii sus guer
sus aceleramientos e movimientos e descontenta
used his extraordinary gifts of inventiveness
full he could not wholly evade the intimate c
contradiction between consciousness increasin
dable> and the morally statuesque postures dem
If Guevara was honest enough to admit, or mo
between self and image (an honesty which m
Europe's proto-essayist), he is even more interes
the defective and frequently monstrous history
art of the prophet and sermonizer, became h
empty rhetoric with commitment to justice.
chapters on the Villano del Danubio --althou
decorative and sardonically reversed confrontat
direct honesty with cultured sophistry - have r
of Guevara's writings. 23 The creative drive
neither decorative nor ironical. Rather, as Castr
Guevara expresses in this parable his indigna
friars who hoped to convert with Christian k
slaughter the inhabitants of the Indies. At le
shows himself to be something more than a
determinedly optimistic purveyor of rhetoric a
Maria Rosa Lida, admitting that the speech
porary debate on the conquest of America, s
Guevara's usual rhetorical variations:

No es menos obvio que, si por pequefias o grand

las Casas estr de parte de los indios, el enjuici

empresa de toda su vida, mientras para Guevar
pretexto para lucir su don oratorio y sus recuerd

In the context of the whole it would be difficu

Guevara was what would be called today an <<
that his questionable sincerity and indignatio
makes the episode of the <Villano> interesting,
or medallion-like form is precisely its histor
history itself which is <<sincere>> and which imp
Guevara's <<don oratorio>>.
Further to strengthen this defense of Gue
wilderness --perhaps in spite of itself --we n
devoted to justice and cruelty of judges whic
the Villano. If they are read superficially, they
of self-evident and self-righteous platitudes.

22 La Celestina, Clisicos castellanos, I, <<Pr6logo>

23 See Castro, xv.

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 178 STEPHEN GILMAN RHM, XXXI (1965)

between the lines Guevara is engaged in chastisi

but its monstrous and inhuman conduct, the
significance. Once imbued with history, they
suspected aesthetic power. A good example is th

Yo no me marauillo que un censor o juez rom

quiera mal a mis amigos, d& favor a mis enem
ponga los ojos en mis hijas, y ponga la lengua en
escandalizo es que muchos juezes assi son golosos
como si ellos fuessen ossos y las carnes humana

We notice here Guevara's usual step by step b

but, instead of empty pomp, the ascending cata
of animal cupidity shocking equally in its relen
Montes, the famous inquisitional escapee, cal
alvedrio>>, but Guevara, by showing us the a
full horror of Inquisitorial dehumanization. Roy
ture in general, illuminates this sudden burst o

But an integral part of literature's life, of its fo

the fact that it was created at a time, and for
thus, is literature possible. 26

To substantiate these assertions let us now

of the Villano del Danubio in order and in de
concludes the lengthy speech of the Villano 27

24 At one point in his career Guevara himself act

particular attention to conversion of local <<morisco
his efforts: <Fray Antonio de Guevara, who was
baptized twenty thousand families, but the Moriscos
conversion was accomplished by corraling them in
when some would seek to hide themselves and others would shout 'No water has touched
me!' They endured it, they said, because their alfaquies assured them that deceit was per-
missable, and that they need not believe the religion which they were compelled to profess>>.
(A History of the Inquisition of Spain, III, New York, 1907, p. 355). P. Angel Uribe,
O. F. M., discusses in detail documentary evidence relative to Guevara's activities as an
Inquisitor among the <<moriscos>> and Moors of the Valencian region, but apparently without
coming across these picturesque events. In general, Uribe's material would seem to confirm
Guevara's diligence and moderation. On the other hand, his remarks at the 1527 Valladolid
congregation convoked to consider the possible heresy of certain Erasmistic doctrines place
Guevara among those who defend the Inquisition: <<Item fateor quod vere et sine ullo
scrupulo Ecclesia Santa punit et separat de medio heresiarchas et hereticos, et juste eos
relaxare brachio seculari, ut igni tradantur, et qui aliter sentit, anathema sits. (<<Guevara,
inquisidors>, Archivo Iberoamericano, 1946, p. 267).
25 Fol. CXLVI. From now on, folio references will be included in the text within pa-
renthesis. Only the first reference to a given folio will be noted in the series of quotations.
These six chapters represent a greatly expanded version of the tenth letter of Marcus Aure-
lius in the Libro aureo, reproduced from manuscript by Foulch6-Delbosc (Revue hispanique,
Vol. 76 (1929), p. 6 ff.).
26 Roy Harvey Pearce, <<Historicism Once Mores>, Kenyon Review, 1958, p. 566.
27 Thus in Mateo Alemin we find the following reference to the Villano's long-win-
dedness: <<no es bien alargar las razones del cocinero que parecen del villano del Danubio>>.
(Part II, Book II, Chapter 5). See also Maria Rosa Lida's catalogue of contemporary reac-
tions to Guevara's style, <<cosa dificil para creer y larga para contar>> (p. 368) being a
typical remark. E. Correa Calder6n cites Francesillo de Zuifiiga as referring to Guevara as

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 EL VILLANO DEL DANUBIO 179

administration of justice in his newly conquere

of their influence at court are <<ygnorantes
enrich themselves and to return home as qu
shrink at no extremes of cruelty, cruelty so
recourse (the echo of Las Casas is audible her

Sabeys que aveys hecho, o Romanos, que nos he

aquel misero reyno de no llegar ma's a nuestras m
propios hijos, y esto por no los dexar en manos d
vosotros, por que mrs queremos que mueran con
servidumbre (CXLI).

The Villano then goes on to what is probably

that Guevara ever allowed any of his alter egos:

O secretos juyzios de los Dioses, que si como soy

tuuiesse licencia de condenarlas, osaria dezir que
querernos perseguir por manos de tales juezes

This final outburst was caused, the Villano expl

Roman corruption and decadence has hap upon h
at this point returns to his earlier identificatio
Aurelius. The latter instead of punishing the
promises (just as Guevara hopes Charles V wil
to the <Danube>>.
This masked discussion of administrative m
suggest to Guevara that it is his duty as Imp
course at some length on judges and justice i
entitled <Que los principes y grandes sefiores de
juezes para que administren justicia, porque
repdiblica>>, contains an extensive sequence o
mediaeval tradition. Its only interesting feat
insistent dissociation of correct administration
Aside from ennumerating the various good q
have, the Chapter returns on several differe
pierden las repdiblicas porque sus principes s
descuidados>. (CXLIII). Apparently Guevara i
royal pupil and reduces his demands to the v

Para que esto los principes ayan de azer y cum

en que han de comer, han de dormir, han de ca
recrear, sino que de XXIIII horas que hay en la
bien de hablar en las cosas de la justicia siquie

But the writer's courage returns in full meas

shielded by an imaginary letter of Marcus A

a <<parlerista... in magnam cuantitatem>> (<<Guev

Escorial, 1943, p. 66).

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180 STEPHEN GILMAN RHE, XXXI (1965)

real problem of justice not in the Indies bu

Inquisitional justice--or injustice. From thi
style nor prophetic fury leave much to be des
In Chapter VII Marcus Aurelius first tip
attention from the Indians of America to the
his delayed reply to a friend who has comp
tion of justice in Sicily: <<Por huyr los eno
libros que me traxeron de Palestina 28 me
emissary from the Holy Land is, like the Vill
Senate, this anticipatory detail seems signif
Guevara's real intentions become more explici

Dexado esto y viniendo al prop6sito, digo que

estamos cercados y a quantas miserias somos
humanidades que cometen los humanos, pero
ticias que hazen nuestros Juezes, por manera
llamar tyranos que matan por fuerga que no ce
De una cosa estoy muy espantado y quasi ajen
derecho la justicia de los dioses y siendo ellos
piadosos, y nosotros teniendo la justicia empres
gloriamos de ser crueles. No se yo qual es el hom
bre, pues vemos que los dioses perdonando sus
bres de clementes, y nosotros castigando in
nombres de tyranos. Con mal estarian los hom
dioses, si fuessen tan seueros sus castigos como
si nos midiessen con esta medida, solo un de
para quitarnos la vida. No puede con raz6n llam
sino saluaje entre los saluajes el que oluidind
piedad las carnes de otro hombre atormenta

Even the most literal reader of these lines, ev

is reading a translation of a letter by Marcus
the intended parallel between <Roman>> justic
insistence on offended yet clement <Gods>
demonstrates that it is not Roman civil justic
Chapter VIII continues the letter with a p
Roman judge so ferocious that when he ar
sediciosos auian huydo, pero muchos de los
name chosen, Lica6nico, 31 suggests little to t

28 In the Libro aureo he writes the latin Elia wh

as Jerusalem (p. 258).
29 One of the central problems that Guevara c
is the reconciliation of Marcus Aurelius' paganism
wishes to preach.
30 A comparison of this text with the correspo
numerous stylistic and rhetorical changes. The on
the penultimate sentence.
31 Obviously suggested by this name is <<wolf
Greek d but it is at least possible that a corre
from the root ?,6xj (light). For example, Xuxa6rpe (
all referred to in the Libro aureo but there is a po

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 EL VILLANO DEL DANUBIO 181

that Guevara was alluding to a specific inquisit

target would have been the infamous Lucero whos
(1499-1508) had had to be officially repudiated
indiscriminate persecution coincide with the follo

Porque era Lica6nico un hombre tan absoluto y t

hechores, a otros por consentidores, a estos porque
lo encubrieron, ninguno se escapaua de ser atormen
en la hazienda (CXLVI).

The result was that, although he was so hated and feared by some that mothers
used to frighten children with his name, the <Roman people>> admired him: <<Por
manera que ya en el pueblo Romano no tienen cr6dito los que sanan con olio
sino los que curan con huego>>. This mention of fire is unique in the five chapters 33
and is apparently as close as Guevara dared come to full explicitness. However, he
does go on to say that the evil has not ceased - as some might think - with the
passing of Lica6nico: <<Agora en cada pueblo ay mas de tres o quatro>>. And all
of them in their atrocious activities betray the ancient <Roman> tradition of tole-
rance. What will be the fate of Lica6nico and his followers? From Guevara's point
of view they will surely be damned, but it is difficult to arrange such a prediction
for a pagan writer. The result is a curiously stated supposition:

Segun las crueldades que agora hazen los juezes para ser temidos, si los dioses
acaso resucitassen a los muertos y pareciessen delante dellos en juyzio los vivos,
yo juzgo que juzgarian... que estos no son sus hijos sino sus enemigos, no
aumentadores de la reptiblica sino ladrones de su clemencia (CXLVII). 34

The chapter closes with a list of recommendations for the improvement of Inqui-
sitional practices. The ideal inquisitor must be gentle, persuasive, merciful, disin-
terested, and above all solicitous of the reputation of the accused: <Lo que pude
remediar secreto, nunca lo castigu6 en pfiblico> (CXLVII). 15 It almost sounds as
if Fray Hernando de Talavera were answering his persecutor, Lica6nico. 36

ambassador's speech persuades the Senate to remove Gracco Valerio from his post as <(pre-
sidente>> in Palestine, <<por ser cruel y estar en odio del pueblo Romano>> (p. 261).
32 Lea, I, p. 206 ff.
33 A minor exception occurs in Chapter 10 (fol. CXLIX): <Quando vna republica
esta leuantada contra otra Republica / es imposible que duren mucho los enojos si los que
se atrauessaron de por medio son cuerdos: pero si acaso el que toma la mano es mas apas-
sionado en el negocio que no lo es el enemigo con quien yo me combato / Al tal diremosle
que mayor mafia se da a echar en la lumbre Lefia / que no a traer agua para matarla>>.
34 The variants in the Libro aureo are the following: <<Pues mira que titulo tan glo-
rioso de clementes tenian nuestros primeros Romanos. y que exemplo de clemengia dexaron
para todos los Emperadores aduenideros! Ten vna cosa gierta, que los gensores o ministros
de iustigia que oluidada la piedad de los Romanos, se tornaron como Barbaros. no los terna
por naturales hijos sino por crudos enemigos. no por augmentadores de su republica sino
infamadores y ladrones de su clemencia>> (p. 256).
35 The full list of Guevara's recommendations reads as follows:
<(Lo que pude hazer por bien / nunca hize por mal.
Lo que pude alcangar con Paz: nunca lo tome por guerra.
Allos que pude vencer con ruegos: nunca los espante con amenazas.
Lo que pude remediar secreto: nunca lo castigue en publico.
Allo que pude corregir con auiso: nunca los lastime con agotes.

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182 STEPHEN GILMAN RHM, XXXI (1965)

Chapter IX adds little that is new or of p

sententious nobility of the opening remark: <d
los cuerpos pero no la tienen para lastimar los
X provides a noteworthy innovation which jus
Described by Guevara as <una muy notable p
Judea hizo en el senado de Roma quexindose
tierra>>, it repeats the pattern of confrontati
the Villano. The speechmaker on this occas
savage but

un judio, hombre anciano, seg'in parecia en sus canas y muy docto en las letras
hebraycas, griegas, y latinas, porque hebreos son de su mismo natural para las
sciencias muy Abiles y para las armas muy cobardes (CXLVIII). 38

This particular representative of the race, whatever his ability with arms, is no
moral coward. For he opens his discourse with an assertion of Jewish religious
superiority over the Romans. The implication seems to be that descendence from
such a race is inherently superior to descendence from the Romans or other poli-
theistic gentiles--a notion that was not uncommon at the time in <<converso>
circles.

The Ambasador then goes on to complain--as the Villano had done befor
him-- about Roman justice and judges. The four <adelantados>> you have se
out to govern and judge us shan sido quatro Landres o plagas, la menor de

Al ninguno jamas castigue en publico que primero no le auisasse en secreto.

Nunca consenti a mi lengua que dixesse mentiras / ni permiti a mis Orejas que oyessen
lisonjas.
Refrene a mi coraqon / a que no desseasse lo ageno / y persuadile a que se contentasse
con lo suyo proprio.
Vele por consolar alos amigos / y desueleme por no tener enemigos.
Ni fuy prodigo en gastar / ni cobdicioso en rescebir.
Nunca de vna cosa hize castigo / sin que primero no perdonasse quatro.
De lo que castigue tengo pena / y por lo que perdone tengo alegria.
Nasci hombre entre los hombres: y por esso comen mis carnes aqui los gusanos.
Fuy virtuoso entre los virtuosos: por esso descansa mi spiritu con los diosess (fo-
lio CXLVII).
36 For a discussion of Fray Hernando de Talavera's attitude toward the conversion of
infidels see Francisco Marquez' edition of Catdlica impugnacidn, Barcelona, 1961.
37 This is missing from the Libro aureo.
38 Apparently not in the Libro aureo.
39 For example, Juan de Lucena in his De vita felici (Optisculos literarios, La So-
ciedad de Bibli6filos Espafioles, Madrid, 1892) remarks as follows: <<El Obispo. -No pienses
correrme por llamar los ebreos mis padres. Sonlo por cierto. y quierolo; ca si antigiiedat es
nobleza, ,quien tan lexos? Si virtud, tan cerca? O si al modo d'Espafia la riqueza
es fidalguia, tan rico en su tiempo? Fue Dios su amigo, su Sefior, su legislador. su
c6nsul, su capitan, su padre, su fijo, y al fin, su redemptor. 10 inmortal Dios! Todos los
oprobios son ya transmutados en gloria, y la gloria contornada en denuesto... Asi tambien
los infieles gentiles id61latras, sin Dios, sin ley y sin religion, A quien s61o era pecado lo
que natura, madre comun, les prohibi6, egual con las bestias, y aun no todo, en gran
vituperio, de toda nobleza y dignidat priuados, eran llamados gentes: agora ya, si alguno
desciende dellos, de los eneydos, troyanos, de los grecos, agamenitas, de los godos, ger-
manios, 6 de los doce pares de Francia, sea quan vicioso sea, es gentil hombre, poco menos
egual con Apolo; y si de los dauitas, de los leuitas, de los machabeos 6 de los doce tribos
de Israel, sea quant virtuoso, quant lexos de vicio sea, Vaya, vaya, qu'es marrano; poco
mAis baxo del poluo. Infieles christianos que tal dicen, imarrados tengan los ojos!b) pp.
146-148.

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 EL VILLANO DEL DANUBIO 183

quales abastaua a empongofiar toda roma quan

na>. 40 They have brought new vices among
propias>>, and worst of all <<nos roban la fama>
In composing the Ambassador's answer, Guev
anguish:

De quantos consejos ha tomado judea de Roma, (i. e. Christianity), tome agora

este roma de judea, conviene a saber: que si ganaron vuestros capitanes mu-
chos reynos derramando sangre, los han de conservar vuestros juezes, no con
rigurosidad derramando sangres, sino con clemencia juntando corafones.

To have been baptized yet to be excluded from Christian brotherhood is the

summit of injustice, and the Ambassador, in spite of his initial claims to superiority,
offers full submission if only justice and love be forthcoming:

si querys conservar nuestro reyno... guardadnos en Justicia y teneros hemos

en reverencia.

Or again:

Rogindonos con mansedumbre, no mandando con presunci6n, hallareys en

nosotros el amor que suelen hallar los padres en los hijos y no la trayci6n que
suelen hallar los sefiores en sus siervos.

The Ambassador from Palestine has in these sentences clearly implied that he is
really the spokesman for the tormented caste of <conversos> imprisoned in the
body politic and pleading for mercy and acceptance. 42
The final chapter in the sequence provides an eloquent summation the end of
which deserves to be cited at length:

Ay del reyno a do son tales todos que ni los buenos entre los malos ni los
malos entre los buenos son conocidos. Ay del reyno que es receptaculo de todos
los simples y destierro de todos los sabios. Ay del reyno do los buenos son
couardes y los malos son muy atreuidos. Ay del reyno do desprecian a los pa-
cificos y amparan los sediciosos. Ay del reyno a do a los que velan por su bien
matan y a los que se desuelan por su mal coronan. Ay del reyno do se permiten
pobres soberuios y los ricos que sean tyranos)> (CL). 4a

What we have just listened to - since, as we remarked proviously, like La Ce-

lestina and other works of its time, the Relox needs to be pronounced for full

40 In the Libro aureo the ambassador is merely described as <<Hebreo o Iudeo>>.

In the Relox, however, Guevara seems interested in establishing the picturesque contrast with
the Villano. In the Libro aureo the four <adelantados>> are named: <<Esto digo, porque
desterrado el primogenito del Rey Idumeo a Lugduno por sus desafueros, auesinos embiado
en su lugar a Componio, a Marco, a Ruffo, y a Valerio Gracco por presidentes: han sido
quatro plagas o quatro landres...>) (pp. 259-260).
41 Not in the Libro aureo.
42 In all of these statements the second version shows minor stylistic and rhetorical
improvements.
43 The end of the lament in the Libro aureo is as follows: <(...eneste tal reyno ninguno
sea vezino, porque en breue vera o matarse los malos, o despoblarse de buenos, o hundirse
los dioses, o tomarle tyrannos!) (p. 264).

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 184 STEPHEN GILMAN RHM, XXXI (1965)

appreciation - is a prophecy of decadence. In f

cious yet grandiose history of his time, Gu
tradition of national self-preoccupation ab
profoundly.
By way of conclusion we may speculate for a moment on how it was that a
person as vain, as apprehensive, and as self-conscious as Guevara seems to have
been dared to challenge such an all-powerful antagonist as the Holy Office. As its
most systematic student, Lea, remarked,

such a concentration of secular power and spiritual authority guarded by so little

limitation and responsibility has never, under any other system, been entrusted
to fallible human nature. 45

And yet, as we have just seen, these chapters of the Relox beyond all reasonable
doubt castigate this same institution eloquently, violently, and recklessly. Other
critics of the Inquisition seem either to have been much more cautious 46 or to have
written from abroad, 47 but Guevara preaches his disguised sermon in a situation
of maximum vulnerability. One possible answer is that in the years following
Lucero's excesses the Inquisition was far more on the defensive than it had been
earlier or was to be later on after the defeat of the Comunidades and particularly
after the Council of Trent. After all, the Relox --however superficially --does
reflect the Erasmistic vogue of the era and of the Imperial court. 48 But there is,
in addition, a second answer to which we have already alluded and which I think
we would be mistaken to overlook: the effectiveness of Guevara's documentary
pretense. Although it may seem to us paper thin, we must try to understand from
our history-ridden and history-conscious age the minds of readers who would not
find it at all strange that Romans should have suffered from a system of injustice
exactly resembling their own. If, when they looked at pictures, Guevara's contem-
poraries did not find it grotesque to see the ancients pictured in contemporary
dress and living in 16th century houses and cities, why should they balk at Marcus
Aurelius? Guevara evidently did not expect them to, " but he did hope that they
might learn much about themselves from reading his pseudo-historical parable.

STEPHEN GILMAN

HARVARD UNIVERSITY

44 See Am&rico Castro, La realidad hist6rica de Espaiia, Mexico, 1962, Chapter

45 Lea, II, p. 233.
48 See the remarks of Mariana cited by Castro in the 1954 edition of his Realidad
histdrica, p. 508.
47 For example, Torres Naharro's Comedia 7acinta, Raimundo Montes, and Pedr
de Luna's continuation of the Lazarillo.
48 See Maria Rosa Lida.
49 One can sense a note of genuine surprise in Guevara's reply to Pedro de Rhuia's
aggressive demands for historical veracity. I am obliged to Mr. Ernest Gray (at presen
working on a Harvard dissertation on Guevara) for the information that the first Lat
translator of the Relox, Johannes Wanckelius (Horlogium Principum, Torgau, 1601), appa-
rently accepted the documentary pretense at face value as did a number of others of i
translators.

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