Allen, El Cristo de La Vega and La Fuerza de La Sangre

8/12/2019 Allen, El Cristo de La Vega and La Fuerza de La Sangre

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El Cristo de la Vega and La fuerza de la sangre

Author(s): John J. AllenReviewed work(s):Source: MLN, Vol. 83, No. 2, The Hispanic Issue (Mar., 1968), pp. 271-275Published by: The Johns Hopkins University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2908201.

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M L N 271initial suspicionwhen he recountsthat beforethe Embassyarrivedsomevery peculiar measureswere taken to preservethe orthodoxyof the in-habitantsof Valladolid. Nesta tarde se deitou pregao que nenhumaMolher sahisse de noyte sem a levar seu Marido de braco, cor penasgravicimas, or atalhar a communicacao dos Hereges. 4 And as alwayshe enjoysa fewmaliciousrumors.15As thedays pass,however, e recountsthemanyexamplesof Englishrespect nd courtesyn matters f religion,theirbroadmindednesswas particularly vident when theycelebratedtheelection of a new pope.16 He comes to the end of his relation with anobservationwhichmusthave occurred to manyat court. He admits thatEngland is themosthereticaland presumptiousnation of Europe yetallthe attentionshown to her representatives uring three weeks was welldone and meritedby thembecause of theirgreat modesty, onsiderationand courtesy;7 virtues, t mightbe added, esteemedby Cervantes andconsonantwith the benevolenttone of Espanola Inglesa.One mightwonder also about thesmall detail which Cervantes ncludesin the novel when he has the English Queen conversant n Spanish orat least able to understand t when spoken. Both Cabrera and Pinheirocommentupon the fluentCastillian of Howard.18 But this is only onedetail out of manywhich must have suggestedthemselves o CervantesbetweenMay 26 and June 18 of 1605. The details are credible becausereal and theseas well as the new atmospherethen in vogue were incor-porated into the narrative.

Loyola University f Los Angeles THOMAS HANRAHAN

y herejias/ Gastamos un millon en quince dias/ En darles joyas, hospedaje yvino. BAS, Vol. XXXII, p. 448.14 Pinheiro,p. 60.16 Ibid., p. 56.16Ibid., p. 100.17 Ibid., p. 163.18 Cabrera, p. 244. Pinheiro adds that Howard had been a familiar of PhilipII when he was in England, p. 66.

El Cristo de la Vega and La fuerzade la sangreLa fuerzade la sangre,the sixthstory n Cervantes'volume of twelveNovelas ejemplares, takes place in Toledo. Leocadia, the heroine, isabducted one eveningwhilewalkingwithher parents,taken by Rodolfo

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272 M L Nto hishome,and raped. She is released a shorttime aterin anotherpartof town and left to findher own wayhome. Althoughshe has managedto take a small crucifix romRodolfo's room,she is unable to tell herparentswho the man was or where she has been taken. Her only cluesare the crucifix nd a fewdetails of the interiorof the house. Leocadialater realizes that she is pregnant, nd in due time a son is born. Thereader is informed hat soon after the abduction Rodolfo left to studyin Italy.One day the son born of thisunion, Luis, is struckdown by a carriageand broughthome unconsciousbyRodolfo's father,who happened to beat the scene of the accident. Leocadia visits he injured child,who cannotbe moved,recognizes he room as the scene of her violation,and tells thewhole storyto Rodolfo's parents,showingthem the crucifixwhich shetook from he room thatnight, evenyearsearlier. Rodolfo is called backfrom taly by his parentsand ultimatelymarriesLeocadia.There seems to be no literary ource for the story, lthough severalcriticshave speculated that it may be based upon some actual case ofwhich Cervantes had knowledge, nd there is no indication of the dateof composition.1As Amezua remarks, lluding to Cervantes'prologue tothe Novelas, no hay . .. que buscar fuentes literarias a La fuerza dela sangre,ya que no las tiene: es una de aquellas novelasde las que conraz6n pudo decir Cervantesque eran suyas propias, no imitadasni hur-tadas a las toscanas, ue su ingenio las engendr6y las pari6 su pluma. 2Nevertheless, here s one incidentin the storywhich cannotbut sug-gest associationsto the reader of Spanish literature, speciallygiven thelanguage in which it is presented, nd that is the device of the crucifixas evidence of the obligation which Rodolfo owes to Leocadia. WhenLeocadia suggests dvertising he crucifixn the local churches n hopesof finding ts owner,her fatherreplies: Lo que has de hacer,hija, esguardarla y encomendarte ella, que pues ella fu6testigode tu desgracia,permitiraque haya juez que vuelva por tu justicia. 3 Later, after re-counting the tragic events of the night with Rodolfo to his parents.Leocadia sac6 del pecho la imagen del crucifijo, ue habia llevado, aquien dijo:-Tui, Sefior, ue fuistetestigode la fuerzaque se me hizo, s6 juez dela enmienda que se me debe hacer. 4

1 Agustin de Amezlia y Mayo, Cervantes,creador de la novela corta espanola(Madrid, 1958), II, 208.2 Ibid., p. 209.8Miguel de CervantesSaavedra,Novelas ejemplares (Garden City,N. Y., 1962),p. 252. Subsequent references re to this edition.4P. 257.



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M L N 273The primary ssociation s probablywithZorrilla'swell knownleyenda,

A buen juez, mejor testigo. The following s a summaryby BenitoPerez Gald6s of the legendon whichthe poem is based:Cuentan que un caballero di6 palabra de matrimonio una joventoledana. Ella era pobre,el hidalgode ejecutoria;y como suele sucederen semejantes asos, os hombres, maxime si son de mas elevada cunaque las doncellas,no ponen el mayorcuidado en cumplir uramentoshechostal vez cuando la mente no tieneserenidadsuficiente ara medirla gravedad de las palabras. Pero esta vez el galAndi6 la suya, anteel Cristoque en las puertasde la iglesia estaba,y la doncella lo puso

por testigo,despu6s de lo cual, crey6, in duda, que la fortalezade suhonor habia adquirido el mAs celoso alcaide. Pasa el tiempo y llegael instanteen que es precisocumplir a promesa. El hombrese resiste;ella no sabe qu6 partido tomar,porque el unico testigoes un Cristode palo, de quien no es razonable, ni aun en plena Edad Media,esperaruna declaraci6ny una firma.Ella, sin embargo, lena de f6yangustia,lleva a su amante en presencia del Cristo y pregunta a ladivina imagen,si no es ciertoque aquel perfidonovio le dio palabrade casamiento. El Cristo, entonces,baja el brazo derecho en serial deasentimiento.El joven, lleno de estupory miedo, cumple su palabra ytodo queda arreglado.5Joaquin Casalduero apparentlyhad some version of the legend of theCristo de la Vega in mindwhen he commented s follows n his discussionof La fuerza de la sangre: Es claro que Cervantesemple6 recursosnovelisticos de la epoca . . . para trazar su argumento, y tambi6n paraexpresarse: el crucifijo omo testigo, a fuerzade la sangre,el beso y laprole numerosa. There are, however, everal versionsof the crucifixas witness fromvery early times,such as Berceo's use of the device inLa deuda pagada, and since Professor asalduerodid notelaboratefurther,

it is difficulto identify he allusion.In any event,the legend of the Cristode la Vega bears an interestingrelationship o La fuerzade la sangre. To beginwith,Cervantes' tory sset in Toledo, whichwas also the location of the miraculouscrucifix fthe egend. The subtitle fZorrilla'spoem is Leyendade Toledo. Thecrucifixwas so famous thatthe churchwhereit stood came to be knownas El Cristo de la Vega. More surprisings the fact that this church isofficiallyhe basilica of Saint Leocadia, the same rather unusual namegivenby Cervantesto the heroineof the story.6Benito Perez Gald6s, Toledo (su historiay su leyenda) (Madrid, 1925), pp.120-122.Joaquin Casalduero, Sentido y forma de las Novelas ejemplares (BuenosAires,1943), p. 135.



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274 M L NOn Apirl26, 1587, nd con pompa muysolemne, ccordingto Fl6res'account in Espana Sagrada,7theremainsof Saint Leocadia were returned

fromFlanders to the basilica whichbears her name. The partyaccom-panyingthe remainspassed the nightof the 23rd of April in Esquivias,where Cervanteswas living at the time,and the event was markedbyfestivasy devotasdemostraciones. Three days later theyreached thebasilica on theVega ofToledo.Over 2500 participantswere involvedin the procession, nd the royalfamily nd la mayorpartede los grandesde Castilla werepresent.Theremains of the saint were interred n Toledo on Monday, the 27th ofApril, to close the festivities.By an unusual coincidence,we know thatCervanteswas in Toledo the nextday,April 28th,forhe signeda docu-menton thatdategivinghiswife,Catalina,an extensive owerofattorney.9Given theimportance f the eventand theproximityfCervantes, othin Esquivias and in Toledo, he can scarcelyhave been unaware of all ofthis,and it may have been at this time that the legend and the saintbecame associated n hismind.It is interestingo note that,of thethreetimesthatthe name Leocadiaappears in Cervantes'works, ne, in La Galatea, publishedin 1585,refersto a characterwho does not appear in theworks nd bearsno relationshipto thelegend,while theother twoLeocadias, bothpost-1587,n La fuerzade la sangre and Las dos doncellas, are involved in breach-of-promisesituations.The settingn Toledo, theuse of the nameLeocadia, and theassociationof Cervanteswith the basilica all indicate that the relationshipbetweenthe legend and the shortstory an scarcelybe accidental. This versionofthe egendcan be documented t least as earlyas 1651,10 nd, as Gald6scomments,s almostcertainly f medievalorigin.Why should Cervantes have included these allusions to the legend(Toledo, Leocadia, crucifijo estigo) in his story?The coincidenceof plotis limitedto the oss ofhonorbya pobre hidalga at thehands ofa wealthyyoung nobleman, and their eventual marriage,brought about by thecrucifix.The plot of the legend is actuallymuch closer to otherstoriesbyCervantes:Fernando'sdeceptionofDorotea, in Don Quijote, I; MarcoAntonio'sdeceptionof both Teodosia and anotherLeocadia, in Las dosdoncellas. The marriageof Rodolfo and Leocadia is achievedwithouta

7El P. Enrique Fl6res,Espana sagrada (Madrid, 1751), VI, 308.8Antonio de Quintana Duefias, Santos de la Imperial Ciudad de Toledo(Madrid, 1651), p. 490.Luis Astrana Marin, Vida ejemplar y heroica de Miguel de CervantesSaavedra (Madrid, 1952), IV, 63-67.10Quintana Duefias,p. 219.



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M L N 275miracle, and the crucifixdevice is little more than incidental to theresolution of the problem. ProfessorAvalle-Arce'sperceptive analogybetween the resolutionof the romanticproblems of the characters nMontemayor's iana bymeans of a magicpotion,and thepsychologicallyacceptableresolutionof the similarromanticproblems t the inn in PartI of Don Quijote, indicates a possible explanation. Aftersummarizingthe episode fromtheDiana, Avalle-Arce omments s follows:

La soluci6n dada a este episodio axial recibi6dura criticapor partede Cervantes. Durante el escrutiniode la libreria de don Quijote, laDiana se salva condicionalmente e las llamas. El cura no la condenarAal brazo seglardel ama siemprey cuando se le quite todo aquello quetrata de la sabia Felicia y de la agua encantada (I, 6). Se hace obvioque la soluci6n ofrecidapor Montemayorno es tal en opini6n de Cer-vantes. Como explic6 hace afiosAmericoCastro [en El pensamientode Cervantes, p. 150-151], l amor,fuerzavital,no puede ser desviadopor medios sobrenaturales. No se debe hacer tabla rasa con las angus-tiadas vidas pastoriles y someterlas sin discriminaci6n un artificialelixer anti-vital. Para Cervanteseste problema,como todos los otros,debe resolversedentro del Ambitode las existenciasen juego, no enarbitrario lejamientode las mismas.11At the inn of Juan Palomeque, as Avalle-Arcepoints out, concurrentambiendiversoscasos de amor. . . . Pero la soluci6n no depende ahorade medios sobrenaturales omo en la Diana. Ya se ha dicho que este es,justamente, l blanco a que apunta la critica cervantina.La mismacrisiscentralse resolversaqui de acuerdo con el contexto de las vidas de lospersonajes. 12La fuerzade la sangre is another instance of the same procedure. Acaso de amor which depends upon supernatural ntervention or itssolution (the legend of theCristode la Vega) is set over againstanother(La fuerza de la sangre) which is resolved dentro del ambito de lasexistencias n juego.UniversityfFlorida JOHNJ.ALLEN

11Juan Bautista Avalle-Arce,La novela pastoril espanola (Madrid, 1959),pp. 75-76.

Yorick'sCovertMotives n Un DramaNuevoThe clever utilization of the theatrewithin the theatre n Un dramanuevo is surpassedbyManuel Tamayo y Baus' ingenioushandlingof the

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Allen, El Cristo de La Vega and La Fuerza de La Sangre

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