1
Riley, Forcione, El Saffar, and Randel are among those who study literary theory in the works of Cervantes.
2
See, for example, Javier Herrero's article «Arcadia & Inferno», a rather extremist approach to the problem with some interesting conclusions. See also Solé-Leris' comments in The Spanish Pastoral Novel.
3
The Galatea was published eleven years before López Pinciano's poetics. However, given Cervantes' obvious awareness of theoretical issues in the prologue and throughout the text (in particular during Darinto and Timbrio's conversation with the shepherds, [II: 33-74]), it seems prudent to accept Forcione's ample evidence that the issues presented by López Pinciano were popular well before 1585 (Cervantes, Aristotle and the Persiles). The Philosophía antigua poética is a good synthesis of the poetic issues under consideration and is cited for the sake of concision.
4
López Pinciano distinguishes between eclogues which are «enarratiuos», such as Virgil's fourth and tenth, and those which are «actiuos». Thus, the eclogue is not among those types of poetry «que siempre guardan vn modo de imitar y remedar»
, rather is among those which, «por no guardar orden, dezís extrauagantes, los quales agora del vno, agora son del otro, agora del otro modo»
(I: 284-85). Interestingly, he also remarks on the criticism of Virgil's eclogues that Cervantes notes in his prologue («el príncipe de la poesía latina fue calumniado en algunas de sus Églogas por haberse levantado más que en las otras»
(1:8): «Y, si me bueluen a preguntar quál tengo por mejor: seguir la imitación o el deleyte del lenguaje, estoy en duda. - Yo no, dixo el Pinciano, que se siga todo junto, pues lo hizo Virgilio en sus Églogas»
(II: 188-89). He also praises Virgil for his verisimilar usage of «cosas humildes y baxas» in the Third Eclogue, «por lo qual el decoro se conseruó y el deleyte se aumentó»
(II: 194). It is precisely the lack of this decorum in the philosophical pastoral romance of the sixteenth century that bothered Cervantes, as evidenced by his justification of such usage in the prologue to the Galatea.
5
The concept which focuses on literature as a selective act has been very effectively presented by Paul Alpers, who adapted Burke's theory of representative anecdote to the pastoral genre, quoting A Grammar of Motives: «Men seek for vocabularies that will be faithful reflections of reality. To this end, they must develop vocabularies that are selections of reality»
(59; Burke's text). This act of selection gave Cervantes much difficulty in the Galatea; it is also what provided him with such entertaining material in the Quijote, which admitted a whole spectrum of styles and forms.
6
See El Saffar's Beyond Fiction, which studies the Galatea in light of the Persiles, presenting the latter as a work of romance, and as such, illustrative of artistic unity.
7
Montemayor noted in the «Argumento» which precedes the Diana that the book was the roman à clef that typified the genre, saying «Y de aquí comiença el primero libro y en los demás hallarán muy diversas hystorias, de casos que verdaderamente an sucedido, aunque van disfraçados debaxo de nombres y estilo pastoril»
(6). His remark, deceptively similar to that of Cervantes, supports the literary artifice rather than undermining it, by alleging the truth of the events depicted therein through the pastoral guise and playing along with the ruse.
8
«En el fondo, siempre se trata de lo mismo, de una fascinación que "desrealiza" la realidad, de una especie de magia diabólica creadora de fantasmas imposibles, de un deseo que necesita convertir la vida en literatura y que inevitablemente destruye su propio objeto»
(Bandera 149).
9
Montemayor solved this problem by having his shepherds be apparently acted upon, rather than act themselves, via Felcia's famous elixir.
10
The characters of the Galatea are obviously restless in their pastoral guise; their fidgety nature is made manifest in their incessant movement. Whereas his predecessors by and large had their shepherds congregate, stop and sit, and then talk, those of Cervantes are almost always on the road while relating their stories or singing. This is particularly interesting in light of Forcione's comments about the road as a symbol of longing, one of the most persistent in the works of Cervantes (Cervantes' Christian Romance 157-58).