Conversations with the Dead: Quevedo and Statius, Annotation and Imitation

Author(s): Hilaire Kallendorf and Craig Kallendorf

Source: Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, Vol. 63 (2000), pp. 131-168
Published by: The Warburg Institute
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/751524 .
Accessed: 07/03/2011 10:03
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at .
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless
you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you
may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.
Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at .
http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=warburg. .
Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed
page of such transmission.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

The Warburg Institute is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of the
Warburg and Courtauld Institutes.

http://www.jstor.org

CONVERSATIONS WITH THE DEAD:

QUEVEDO AND STATIUS, ANNOTATION AND IMITATION*
Hilaire Kallendorf and Craig Kallendorf
Retired in the peace of these deserts
With few books, but learned ones,
I live in conversation with the dead,
And I listen with my eyes to the deceased...'

lthough the poet, satirist, humanist and patriot Francisco de Quevedo (1580-1645)
may have owned as many as five thousand books, only sixteen volumes bearing his
signature have been found to date.2 Some of them are annotated," allowing us on occasion
to witness Quevedo's responses to his literary predecessors as he began to shape his

* We would like to thank the

following scholars at
Princeton for their assistance with various aspects of
this project: Steve Ferguson, Alban Forcione, Anthony
Grafton, Paul Needham and Ronald Surtz. We would
also like to thank the Readers of this Journal for
their comments on an earlier draft, and Ian Donaldson
and Jos6 Martinez-Torrej6n for bibliographical advice.
In addition, we wish to thank Fausto Roldin at the
Fundaci6n Bartolom6 March Servera for his kind assistance. Finally, we are grateful to the Woodrow Wilson
Foundation for the Goheen Prize awarded to Hilaire
Kallendorf, which funded travel to Naples to study
Quevedo's manuscript in the Biblioteca Nazionale.
i. 'Retirado en la paz de estos desiertos / con pocos,
pero doctos librosjuntos, /vivo en conversaci6n con los
difuntos, /y escucho con mis ojos a los muertos...'
Francisco de Quevedo y Villegas, 'Desde la torre' (c.
1637), in his Poesia original completa,ed. J. M. Blecua,
Barcelona 1996, p. 98, no. 131.
2. In the years after his death, Quevedo's library
was broken up and ultimately dispersed. While he was
imprisoned in the convent of San Marcos in Le6n for
four years, after the Count-Duke Olivares accused him
of being an enemy of the Spanish government and a
confidante of France, his books were kept in the care
of Francisco de Oviedo, Juan de Molina and a cleric
named Guerrero. On 18 and 19 April 1646, Pedro
Aldrete, the designated heir to Quevedo's books and
papers, took away 176 books, some of which he may
have sold. The remaining books were probably at
Quevedo's estate, La Torre de Juan Abad, or in the
possession of the Duke of Medinaceli, in whose house
Quevedo had stayed before his imprisonment. In April
1647, part of Quevedo's library went from Madrid
to Seville and then on to Sanlficar to the Duke of
Medinaceli, who had sent for the books of his dead

JOURNAL

OF THE WARBURG

friend. They remained in Sanlficar until 1697, when

the convent of San Martin in Madrid purchased 1471
books which had been in the duke's library; but there is
no way of telling how many had been in Quevedo's
collection and how many had entered the library from
other sources. In the 20oth century Bartolom6 March
acquired some of the books directly from the Medinaceli family, part of whose library he bought before he
established the Fundaci6n March. Some of the books
from the convent of San Martin went to the Biblioteca
Nacional, Madrid. See F. C. R. Maldonado, 'Algunos
datos sobre la composici6n y dispersi6n de la biblioteca
de Quevedo', Homenaje a la memoria de Don Antonio
Madrid 1975, PP- 405Rodriguez-Mon-ino, 91io-i97o,
28; A. Martinengo, La astrologia en la obra de Quevedo:
Una clave de lectura, Madrid 1983, pp. 173-4; and 'Testamento y codicilo de Francisco de Quevedo Villegas',
Quevedo y su familia en setecientos documentos notariales
ed. J. O. Crosby and P. Jauralde Pou,
(1567-1724),
Madrid 1992, p. 357. Fifteen volumes bearing Quevedo's
signature are listed in Maldonado, pp. 406-7 n. 6; to
this list should be added the work by Aristotle discussed
by L. L6pez Grigera in Anotaciones de Quevedo a la Retdrica
de Arist6teles, Salamanca 1998.
3. Fourteen of these annotated volumes are printed
editions
of other authors: Pindar, Aristophanes,
Aristotle, Theodosius of Tripoli, Seneca, Florus, Dante,
Thomas More, Flaminio Nobili, Giovanni Battista
Fernando
de Herrera, Joseph Scaliger,
Armenini,
Gabriele Zinano and Petrus Antonius. Two more
volumes
notes are
bearing Quevedo's
autograph
versions (one a copyist's manuscript, one a printed
edition) of his own Carta a Luis XIII. These notes
presumably reflect, at least in large part, additions and
corrections to his own text. Only a few of Quevedo's
annotations
have been published and discussed. In

AND COURTAULD

INSTITUTES,

LXIII,

2000

132

HILAIRE KALLENDORF AND CRAIG KALLENDORF

own works in conversation with his sources. We are now able to add a seventeenth book
to this list-a 1502 Aldine Statius in the Princeton University Library-which along with
Quevedo's signature also contains a significant number of annotations in his hand.4
Scholars have previously concluded that Quevedo must have known Statius. Editors
from Pedro Aldrete to Jose Manuel Blecua, for example, have cited parallels between
Statius's Thebaidand two or three of Quevedo's poems;5 and Ricardo Senabre has discussed
the relationship between the Thebaidand Quevedo's 'Poema heroico a Cristo resucitado'
at some length." Statius's Silvae are also a logical source for Quevedo's own Silvas.James

the first Aguilar edition of Quevedo's Obras completas

(Madrid 1932), Luis Astrana Marin included most of
Quevedo's annotations to Fray Juan de Herrera and
Seneca and some marginalia from his copy of Flaminio
Nobili's Trattato dell'amore hunmano. These annotations
were excluded,
however, from the second Aguilar
For Quevedo's annotated copy of
edition (1941-3).
Dante's Divine Comedy see R. Cacho Casal, 'Quevedo y
su lectura de la Divina commedia', Voz y letra, Ix, 1998,
PP. 53-75. H. Ettinghausen, 'Quevedo Marginalia: His
Copy of Florus's "Epitome"', Modern Language Review,
lix, 1964, PP- 391-8, transcribes all of the marginalia
in Quevedo's Florus and shows how these annotations
In
reveal their author's
nationalistic
sentiments.
Quevedo's Defensa de Epicuro (Barcelona 1635), many
quotations from Seneca correspond to passages which
he had marked 'Epicuro' in his copy of Seneca's Opera;
see Ettinghausen, p. 393. P. Komanecky, 'Quevedo's
Notes on Herrera', Bulletin of Hispanic Studies,
III,1975,
pp. 123-33, shows how Quevedo's marginalia in his
copy of Herrera's poetry prove that he used this
material when he wrote the prologue to his own edition
of Francisco de la Torre's works. For brief discussions
of other books bearing Quevedo's signature and at
least one of his marginal notes see also F. L6pez
Estrada, 'Quevedo y la Utopia de Tomis Moro', Artas del
Congreso Internarional de Hispanistas, Mexico City 1967,
pp. 403-9; P. Astrom, 'Un volume de la bibliotheque
de Quevedo', Bulletin du Musie hongrois des beaux-arts,
Budapest 1959, pp. 34-8: and M. Gendreau-Massaloux,
'Humanisme et mathematiques:
Quevedo lecteur de
Th6odose de Tripoli', L 'Humanisme dans les lettres espagnoles: Colloque international d'ftudes humnanistes (Tours
1976), Paris 1979, pp. 311-26 (this last article assumes
some marginal annotations to be Quevedo's which,
upon examination of the plates, we find not to be his;
for a similar criticism see F. de Quevedo, Virtud militante:
Contra las quatro pestes del mundo, invidia, ingratitud, soberbia, avarizia, ed. A. Rey, Santiago de Compostela 1985,
p. 65 n. 10 bis). Finally, see the splendid discussion of
Quevedo's annotations to Aristotle's Rhetoric in L6pez
Grigera (as in n. 2).
4. Statius, Sylvarum libri quinque, Thebaidos libri duodecim, Achilleidos duo, Venice 15o2; Princeton, University

Library, shelf-mark Ex 2926.1502; all quotations from

Statius will be taken from this volume. The fate of the
book after Quevedo's death is known at least in part:
it went to the convent of San Martin, as is proven by
'C. 1566' on the title-page of the Orthographia, where
Quevedo also signed his name (see Fig. 68). For a book
of Quevedo's bearing a similar marking see his copy of
J. J. Scaliger, Yvonis Villiomari Aremorici. In loros controversos R. Titii Animnadversorumliber; [Heidelberg]
159-7,
now Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional R/23842
(cited by
Maldonado, as in n. 2, p. 4o7 n. 6); other examples are
and R/642. The library stamp is
R/3693,
R/3oo-o
but begins with 'BIBL', an abmostly undecipherable
breviation of 'Biblioteca', and ends with 'n'. We do not
believe the 'n' could be the last letter of 'S. Martin',
since none of the four books in the Biblioteca Nacional
in Madrid which belonged to Quevedo and were in the
Convento de San Martin bears a similar stamp. We do
not know precisely when the book came into the hands
of Junius Spencer Morgan (1867-1932),
whose name
also ends with 'n' but who did not use a library stamp
for the volumes in his collection. The book bears the
library accession number '169437' and the date stamp
'December 10, 1902' on sig. a2r, which at least tells us
when Morgan, nephew of the financier and a major
benefactor of Princeton University Library, donated it.
5. See Francisco de Quevedo, Obra poitica, ed. J. M.
Blecua, 3 vols, Madrid 1969--7 1 , pp. 458, 672.
6. Although Quevedo does not appear to have
imitated Statius's epic directly as he did the Silvae,
scholars had already begun to surmise that Quevedo
must have read the Thebaid and that certain metaphors from it influenced two or three of his poems.
R. Senabre, 'De Quevedo a Estacio', in II Homenaje a
Quevedo (Actas de la II Academia Literaria Renacentista), ed. V. Garcia de la Concha, Salamanca 1982,
speculates about Quevedo's sonnets 'Al
pp. 315-22,
bast6n que le vistes en la mano', 'NVes con el polvo
de la lid sangrienta...?'
and 'Es una dulce voz tan
poderosa'. Senabre is definitely on the wrong track in
his conjecture that Quevedo might have used a Spanish
translation of Statius's Thebaid by Juan de Arjona. But
he is right both generally about the 'cristianizaci6n de
temas, mitos e ideas de origen pagano caracteristica de

QUEVEDO AND STATIUS

133

0. Crosby and Lia Schwartz have provided a definitive analysis of the close relationship
between Statius's 'Somnus' and Quevedo's imitation, 'El suefio'; and Manuel Angel
Candelas Colodr6n has recently suggested (though without offering proof or elaboration)
that four other silvas by Quevedo might have had Statian models.7 The discovery of
Quevedo's annotated copy of Statius confirms such conclusions; but it also permits us to
pursue the matter at greater length than was possible previously.
It is difficult to say exactly when or where Quevedo acquired the Princeton volume,"
but a survey of the writings of Quevedo and his contemporaries reveals that he had a
longstanding interest in Statius and his poetry. We know from Lope de Vega's detailed
description of the literary atmosphere at court in 16o8-9 that in this early, philologically
oriented phase of his career, Quevedo made no secret of his ambitious project of imitating
Statius. In a letter in verse from 16o8 or the beginning of 16og, to Gregorio de Angulo,
the regidorof Toledo, Lope wrote:
Youwill see anotherFrancisco,who renews
With a more divine style than that of Statius
The Silvas, where he already tries to surpass him.
If I had here the wit for it, or the space,
I would paint Quevedo for you, but I cannot ..."

In Quevedo's Anacreoncastellano,finished about this same time, Statius figures prominently in a list of undervalued classical poets: 'Homer, Vergil, Statius and Hesiod, of whom
Anacre6n says tacitly that many praise them, and few understand them, and fewer read
them, because they lack the beauty, joyfulness and brevity of the lyric poets ...'10 Six silvas
of Quevedo appear in the Segunda parte de las flores de poetas ilustres collected by Juan

Quevedo' and specifically about Quevedo's borrowings

from the Thebaid. More recent, but also misguided,
speculation about which edition of Statius Quevedo
might have used may be found in P. Jauralde Pou, 'Las
silvas de Quevedo', La silva, ed. B. L6pez Bueno, Seville
and C6rdoba 1991, p. 171.
7. See J. O. Crosby and L. Schwartz, 'La silva "El
suefio" de Quevedo: Genesis y revisiones', Bulletin of
Hispanic Studies, LXIII, 1986, pp. 111-26; M. A. Candelas
Colodr6n, Las silvas de Quevedo, Vigo 1997, p. i15.
Candelas Colodr6n's discussion is brief, amounting to
just one page within his chapter on Quevedo's sources
(he also identifies Horace, Seneca, Theocritus, Vergil,
Propertius and Petronius). He compares Quevedo's
'Este de los demas sitios Narciso' to Statius's Silvae,
1.3, 'Villa Tiburtina Manilii Vopisci'; Quevedo's 'De tu
peso vencido' to Statius's Silvae, 11.3, 'Arbor Atedii
Melioris'; Quevedo's '?C6mo pudiera ser hecho piadoso' to Statius's Silvae, 111.4, 'Capelli Flavi Earini'; and
Quevedo's 'Al tronco y a la fuente' to Statius's Silvae,
II.4, 'Psittacus eiusdem'.
8. The inventory of his father's books at the time of
his death (see Crosby andJauralde Pou, as in n. 2, pp.
240-1) shows that Quevedo did not inherit his copy of

Statius from him. Quevedo was made a knight of the

Order of Santiago on 29 December 1617, and, according to Cacho Casal (as in n. 3), p. 6o, henceforth he
always signed his name with this title. We may thus
speculate that he acquired the book before the end of
1617. For more speculation regarding his acquisition
of the volume see below, n. 18.
9. 'Vereis otro Francisco, que renueva / Con mis
divino estilo que el de Estacio / Las Silvas, donde ya
A vencerle prueba. / Si aqui tuviera ingenio, si aqui
espacio, / Yo os pintara i Quevedo, mas no puedo...
Lope Felix de Vega y Carpio, 'Epistola al Doctor
Gregorio de Angulo, Regidor de Toledo', Colecci6n de
obras no dramdticas, ed. C. Rosell, Madrid 1856, pp. 41617. The letter was first published in Lope de Vega's La
Filomena, in 1621.
lo. 'Homero, Virgilio, Estacio y Hesfodo, de quien
ticitamente dice que los alaban muchos, y los entienden pocos, y los leen menos, por faltarles la hermosura
y alegria, y brevedad de los liricos...' Cited byJauralde
Pou, 'Las silvas de Quevedo' (as in n. 6), p. 173; from
Francisco de Quevedo, Obras completas, ed. F. Buendia,
2 vols, 6th edn, Madrid 1932, repr. 1974-8, 11, Obras en
verso, p. 737-

134

HILAIRE KALLENDORF AND CRAIG KALLENDORF

Antonio Calder6n. We can infer from this that Quevedo had initiated his project of imitating Statius in or before 161 1.11The next contemporary reference to Quevedo's silvas
appears in a brief sentence in Bartolome Jimenez Pat6n's Mercurius Trismegistus(1618),
where the author alludes to 'Don Francisco de Quevedo in his seventh silva, to the man
who was digging the gold mine.'12 Thus, by 1618 there were at least seven silvas, which
were arranged in a deliberate sequence.
This dating places much of Quevedo's early work on the silvas in his Italian period,
1613-18. During that time he was part of the Accademia degli Oziosi in Naples'3-an
appropriate setting in which to work on the poems of the Neapolitan Statius. Moreover,
Naples, Biblioteca Nazionale MS XIV.E.46, the other document pertinent to Quevedo's
silvas identified by modern scholars, confirms this chronology.14 Two-thirds of Quevedo's
silvas appear in this codex, though not in their final form, for there are signs of authorial
revision, a process that was to go on for decades.
In 1624, after his return to Spain, Quevedo wrote, in a letter to Don Juan de la Sal:
'Let them carry on, for I shall return on account of my melancholy to the Silvas, where
sentiment and study help me.' 15We believe that Quevedo was referring here to his own
poems written in imitation of Statius. The hypothesis that he was reading, annotating and
imitating Statius during this period is strengthened by a later reference to what he called
the Silvas of Statius: in his dedicatory letter (written in 1629) to his edition of the works of
Fray Luis de Le6n, Quevedo not only mentions Silvae, v.3, but also quotes line 157.1"His
work on the silvas continued during his final years; indeed, it is well known that in 1645,
as he lay dying, Quevedo was still collecting and revising his poems for publication.
It seems clear, then, that the poetry of Statius occupied Quevedo's attention for more
than thirty-five years. Examination of the ink and handwriting of the annotations in the
to the Segunda parte de
i1. Calder6n's dedication
las Flores de poetas ilustres is dated 24 December 161 i1.
The manuscript was first published in Seville in 1896
by Juan Quir6s de los Rfos and Francisco Rodrfguez
Marfn; references to that edition in this article retain
the original orthography.
12. 'Don Francisco de Queuedo en su setima Sylua,
al que cababa la mina de oro'. This reference from
Jimenez Pat6n is quoted in M. del Carmen Rocha de
Sigler, Francisco de Quevedo: Cinco silvas, Salamanca 1994,
pp. 95-6, a refreshing attempt to view Quevedo's silvas
as a unified body of poetry. See also M. A. Candelas
Colodr6n, 'Las silvas de Quevedo', in Estudios sobre
Quevedo: Quevedo desde Santiago entre dos aniversarios, ed.
S. Fernandez Mosquera, Santiago de Compostela 1995,

(as in n. 12). We have also examined it and generally

agree with Ettinghausen's conclusions; but see below,
p. 167, Appendix II no. 25, and pp. 167-8 note t, for
a poem which appears to have been lost from it. It is
interesting to note that Jimenez Pat6n's reference to
Quevedo's 'seventh silva' matches the final numbering
of the Naples manuscript. Could Jimrnez Pat6n have
seen this manuscript, or perhaps a copy of it? We believe
it is likely that he did, and this piece of information in
turn further helps to date the manuscript to the period

pp. 161-85.
13. F. Fernandez Murga, 'Francisco de Quevedo,
academico ocioso', in Garcfa de la Concha, ed. (as in
n. 6), p. 51.
14. Quevedo's direct involvement in the production
of this manuscript was established by H. Ettinghausen,
'Un nuevo manuscrito aut6grafo de Quevedo', Boletin
de la RealAcademia Espaniola, LII, 1972, pp. 211-84. The
manuscript has been profitably used by Rocha de Sigler

pp. 125-6.

1613-18.
15. 'Vayan adelante, que yo volvere por mi inelancolfa con las Silvas, donde el sentimiento y el estudio
hacen algfin esfuerzo por mi.' Francisco de Quevedo,
Epistola4io completo, ed. L. Astrana Marfn, Madrid 1946,
16. 'Y Estacio, en el libro V de las Silvas (Epicedion in
patrem), hablando de los poetas, cuando trata de los
poetas, cuando trata de Licofr6n, que fuie quien en
griego ensefi6 esta seta, dice: "Carmina Battiadae latebrasque Lycophronis atri"; ... escondrijos del ennegrecido
Licofr6n. No se pudieron estudiar palabras de mayor
oprobio.' Quevedo, Epistolario completo (as in n. 15), P224.

QUEVEDOAND STATIUS

135

Princeton volume suggests that all of the notes are Quevedo's, but that they were not all
entered at the same time (Figs 68-9).17 As we shall see, several of the silvas most closely
connected to Statius are among the first group, composed by 1611. So it is logical to
conclude that at least some of the notes in the Princeton volume reflect the careful study
of Statius which must have preceded Quevedo's initial efforts to write his own silvas.'8

If we turn now to what Quevedo wrote in his copy of Statius (see Appendix I, pp. 157-65),
we find that five points occupied his attention as he read. First, he underlined the names
of the Greek poets cited by Statius in his 'Epicedion in patrem' (Silvae, v.3.153-8; sig.
i3V).
Second, he marked references to several Latin authors whose work could be compared
with the Silvae-Pliny (sig. a3V), Horace (sigs a4v, b2v), Ovid (sig. a4v) and Martial (sig.
a5r). Third, he responded repeatedly to Stoic themes in the text. For example, Silvae,
11.3.66-9, advocating indifference to the distractions of daily life and the importance of
inner peace, was marked for future use (sig. c8V). Next to a reference to fortuna in Silvae,
v.1.135-7, Quevedo wrote 'queen' (sig. h3V), suggesting an interest in 'Queen' Fortuna,
who threatens the internal calm of the Stoic sage;19this same interest was carried over to
Silvae, v.5.56-62, which was also annotated 'queen' (sig. i7r). Fourth, we find a consistent
interest in Statius's style. In many cases elegantly phrased passages are simply underlined
in the text; but sometimes Quevedo tells us more precisely what he was thinking as he
read. At Silvae, 1.3.47-8 (sig. b2r), his note reads 'remarkably and poetically and elegantly
concerning sculpture'; and in the poem praising Crispinus, Quevedo responded to an
extended simile (Silvae, v.2.21-7) with 'beautiful comparison' (sig. h6r). Finally, we find
Quevedo, a Christian humanist, seeking to synthesise Christian and classical learning. Let

17. The marginalia in the Princeton volume show

many distinctive features of Quevedo's handwriting:
the peculiarities of his ligatures, his frequent capitalisation of nouns even when they are not proper names,
his use of the letter 'i' instead of 'y', his frequent use of
the ';', and his indifferent use of 'b' and 'v'. For additional plates illustrating the peculiarities of Quevedo's
handwriting see Ettinghausen, 'Un nuevo manuscrito'
(as in n. 14), pls I and 3 after p. 279.
18. Since Quevedo was occupied with his imitation
of Statius before he made his 1613-18 trip to Italy,
we believe he probably bought the Princeton volume
before he left Spain (see also above, n. 8). C. Griffin,
'Aldus Manutius' Influence in the Hispanic World',
Aldus Man utius and Renaissance Culture: Essays in Memory
ofFranklin D. Muiphy, ed. D. S. Zeidberg, Florence 1998,
p. 323, notes that at least one copy of well over half of
Aldus Manutius's books can be found somewhere in
Spain today, and most of these books arrived there in
the 16th century. Editions of the Latin classics were
normally imported from abroad, often from Venice,
rather than printed in Spain (see Griffin, p. 326; also
F. J. Norton, Printing in Spain 15o01-1520o, Cambridge

1966, pp. 127, 134-7; and idem, A Descriptive Catalogue

of Printing in Spain and Portugal 1501-1520, Cambridge
1978); although a law was passed in 1558 to limit book
imports from abroad, the flow of Greek and Latin classics never stopped (H. Kamen, The Spanish Inquisition: A
Historical Revision, New Haven and London 1997, pp.
o13-6). Since his Aldine edition of Statius was a centuri' old when Quevedo began work on his silvas, it is
unlikely, though just possible, that he bought it new.
He may have purchased it at a public auction (on the
importance of such auctions in the history of book ownership see T. J. Dadson, Libros, lectoresy lecturas, Madrid
1998). The binding of the volume is described by Dr
Paul Needham, Scheide Librarian at Princeton University, as goatskin, probably Spanish, mid-16th century,
with Renaissance arabesque tooling, parcel gilt, edges
gilt and gauffered with knotwork stamp, with traces of
four leather ties. This would seem to place the book in
Spain before it entered Quevedo's possession.
19. Seneca, Epistulae morales, xvI.4-5, EIxxiv.6-7, and
xcviii passim; see also idem, Opera quae extant omnia, ed.
Justus Lipsius, 4th edn, Antwerp 1652, p. xi ('Iudicium
super Seneca'); and Lipsius, De constantia, 1.6.

136

HILAIRE KALLENDORF

C
NiiiiVA.4 Cc-:IILii

AND CRAIG KALLENDORF

RA

0:

VA&
BaEX
EsS
NistR
C~VABi!iAi
:vr.
meii
tig
ro

ts

-.

68. Aldine Statius owned by Quevedo (Venice 1502, Princeton University LibraryEx 2926.1502).
Title page of the Orthographia,
showing Quevedo's annotations
REPRODUCED BY PERMISSION OF PRINCETON UNIVERSITYLIBRARY

QUEVEDO AND STATIUS

137

L rB ,re

I: nuWmtgxfitaeibfferifatl(o#
in.

fwdetsgigMdcarr
Sremtttrmmdt0
erlmtif ilUmzaf
prcothamrMmlt

cys

1rrairgttokh#Pttdtnecf;4li4urebN5
b
rbesaweumas
fret bar
oe& emibile

detens

rlida

rs

7cL*54
frloy aia eaorer.rela

Taai*

ma4* GPen4MWr
mdtwbitdo~do
ccfAe~a
o enicu* gexm
bicdur4Lnr
icrd
y
sIwy

a
edw"t
o mir0WI
tene
eesdMmrOaro-fiex'f0enwt
Ty brapiSartWr
4lXf

GS

sx
v

Hie'q;

en

uirms

:ethc
soy:renlrat

ic
-p
pc #as
if sroy itn:u
arrpr:
uapp
haa '- grfC'pe~
yerwatr

ceai
,veine

lex'-

u-L

mM

m
nrTyildrtrlntwei
s lite rnf l1WJ'aU74mq
pente

shuiaaans
a ae nfej
Pemnm
fi x Lfisr
netoaet

IF

0
R1 1obr
em i erit

RIOliAcedadbmit
me&n
I W
xc

w setl.

al -P fter
li-ni
por donar
rq*
clodtrenatrOymbenitolore4.
tod
li mincycNO
T TA"4-erust
f

69. Aldine Statius owned by Quevedo (Princeton University LibraryEx 2926.1502).

Sig. a7r, Statian text and Quevedo's annotations
REPRODUCED BY PERMISSION OF PRINCETON UNIVERSITYLIBRARY

138

HILAIRE KALLENDORF

AND CRAIG KALLENDORF

us look at each one of these points in turn, to see why Quevedo's approach to Statius was
so enthusiastic as to produce comments like 'marvel at the ingenuity of Statius' (sig. h7,
on Silvae, v.2.80).20

Medieval classicism was almost exclusively Latin, and it is worth recalling that Renaissance scholars and writers were not necessarily competent in Greek." Quevedo's limited
knowledge of Greek was criticised by Luis de G6ngora (1561-1627), who posed awkward
questions about the scholarship on which his Anacreoncastellanorested.2 On the basis of
Quevedo's education and his translation of such works as the Greek anthology, pseudoPhocylides, and Plutarch's life of Marcus Brutus, the majority of his contemporaries regularly praised his Greek;'2 but in fact, modern scholars have concluded from a careful study
of the Anacreonthat Quevedo drew regularly on the versions of his predecessors with few
scruples and little discernment, that he introduced new errors into his rendering of the
text, and that his scholarly conjectures and initiatives regarding the Greek text were not
felicitous.24 Knowing that Quevedo's Greek was weak helps us understand how he decided
which edition of Statius to buy; for in addition to the text from a press renowned for its
scholarly standards, the 1502 Aldine edition contains an original work by the scholarprinter himself, the Orthographia et flexus dictionum Graecarum omnium apud Statium cum
accentibus et generibus ex variis utriusque linguae autoribus. The inclusion of the Orthographia

undoubtedly made the Aldine edition appealing to a reader like Quevedo, since it consists
of an index of Greek words and words of Greek origin used by Statius, especially in the
Silvae,along with other inflected forms, definitions and occasional scholarly observations.2-

2o. 'Admira Stacii ingenium'. 'Admira' is, of course,

the familiar imperative in Spanish, not Latin, and 'Stacii'
reflects the influence of the vernacular on Quevedo's
orthography. For his use of the vernacular in his annotations to the Thebaidsee e.g. sigs slx and S22rof the
Princeton volume. But as Appendix I demonstrates,
most of his notes to the Silvaewere written in relatively
comprehensible Latin.
21. R. Hexter, 'Aldus, Greek, and the Shape of the
"ClassicalCorpus"', in Zeidberg, ed. (as in n. 18), pp.
143-6o0, emphasises the importance of publishers like
Aldus Manutius for cementing the place of Greek into
the structure of classical studies as we know the field
today.
22. G6ngora initiated his criticisms of Quevedo's
Greek in a sonnet of 16og which included the words
'... Con cuidado especial vuestros antojos / Dicen que
quieren traducir al griego, / No aviendolo mirado
New
vuestros ojos' (Obraspoeticasde D. Luis de Gigora,
(
York 1921, repr. 1970, III, p. 3, no. 427). Quevedo
responded angrily, alluding to G6ngora's alleged Jewish roots and his large nose: 'Yo te untare mis versos
con tocino ... /Por qud censuras tfi la lengua griega/
siendo solo rabi de lajudia, / cosa que tu nariz aun no
lo niega?' (Blecua, ed., as in n. 5, III, no. 829, 11.1, 91', p. 238). G6ngora answered in his Romance LXIV,
'FTbula de Leandro v Hero', which begins: 'Aunque

entiendo poco griego, / En mis gregaiescos he hallado

/ Ciertos versos de Museo, / Ni muy duros ni muy
blandos...' (Luis de G6ngora, Poesias, ed. A. Arroyo,
Mexico City 1986, p. 67). Quevedo replied by again
defending his Anacre6n,but this time he did not make
any claims regarding his own knowledge of Greek:
'... Quien te mete entre los griegos / aun no siendo tfi
troyano? / RPor que de lo que no has visto / hablas
como papagayo? / ;Qul te hizo Anacreonte / en los
versos castellanos, / que le alabas cuando mis / pretendes vituperallo?' (Blecua, ed., as in n. 5, III, no. 828,
11.45-53, P. 235). All of these attacks are discussed in
S. Benichou-Roubaud, 'Quevedo helenista (El Anacre61n
castellano)', Nueva revista de Jilologia hispanica, XIV. 1,
i960, pp. 51-72 (52).
23. Typical of early praise for Quevedo's accomplishments as a Hellenist is that of his editorJusepe Antonio
GonzAlez de Salas, who wrote in 1648 that: 'Hasta hoy
no conozco poeta alguno versado mias,en los que viven,
de hebreos, griegos, latinos y franceses; de cuyas lenguas
... tuvo buena noticia' (cited in Benichou-Roubaud, as
in n. 22, p. 51).
24. See J. Sim6n Diaz, 'El helenismo de Quevedo y
varias cuestiones mias',Revistade bibliografianacional,vI,
1945, pp. 87-98; andJ. O. Crosby, 'Quevedo, the Greek
Philolog,, xix, ic96,
Anthology, and Horace', Romanrce
PP. 435-49.

QUEVEDOAND STATIUS

139

Quevedo clearly knew and valued the canonical Golden Age Latin authors: Ovid's
mannerism appealed to his taste, the elegists provided material for his descriptions of
love, the Dido story reappeared in his 'Imitaci6n de Virgilio' and even Horace, proponent
of a moderation foreign to Quevedo's fiery temperament, makes an occasional intertextual appearance.26 While three of the five cross-references to Latin writers marked in
the Princeton Aldine are to Golden Age authors, however, ideologically and stylistically,
Quevedo was attracted more strongly to the later Juvenal, Persius, Seneca, Martial,
Tacitus, Lucan and Petronius.
Statius, of course, is one of these later, so-called Silver Age authors; and seeing him
in this company helps us to understand why Quevedo was attracted to his poetry. For
example, Quevedo's correspondence with Justus Lipsius in 1604-527 encouraged his
interest in Stoicism, a common element in Silver Age literature, especially the writings of
Seneca. Among the prominent Stoic themes in Statius's Silvae are the importance of
universal law and divine providence, the need to serve the state, the supremacy of personal
merit over birth and immortality as the recompense for the Stoic sage.8" These are the
themes to which Quevedo responded in his marginal notes; and his annotations parallel
the well-documented Stoic notions found in the other works which occupied him during
the time that he was writing and revising his silvas. His early epitaph for Carrillo y Sotomayor, like his marginal annotation at Silvae, v. 1.135-7 (see Appendix I), refers at least
obliquely to the impact of fortuna on the life of the Stoic;29 and the nexus fortunaprovidentia-fatumis discussed further in the Doctrina moral (1612), completed just before
Quevedo left for Italy. His interest in these same Stoic themes continued through his
later writings, as even the titles show: for instance,

De los remedios de cualquiera fortuna

(completed 1633, published 1638), echoing Petrarch's Stoic-inspired De remediisutriusque

fortunae, and Providencia de Dios ( 1641-2)

.30

in
dell'Indice',
25. C. Vecce, 'Aldo e l'invenzione
Zeidberg, ed. (as in n. 18), pp. 122-3, discusses the
Orthographia as part of Aldus's larger programme to
equip the texts he published with scholarly tools to
facilitate their use. The Orthographia was occasionally
considered valuable enough to be bound separately
and sold as a book in its own right; see e.g. Maggs
Brothers, Bibliographica Typographica (Catalogue 509),
London 1928, p. 274, no. 1634.
26. On Quevedo's knowledge and use of both Golden
Age and Silver Age Latin authors see H. Kallendorf,
'Francisco de Quevedo (158o-1645)',
Centuriae Latinae:
Cent une figures humanistes de la Renaissance aux Lumnires
offertes a M.-M. de la Garanderie, ed. C. Nativel, Geneva

[in press].
27. See Francisco de Quevedo, Epistolario completo (as
in n. 15), PP. 1-9, 125-30.
28. On Stoic themes in the Silvae see G. LagunaMariscal, 'Philosophical Topics in Statius' Silvae: Sources
and Aims', Epicedion: Hommage at P. Papinius Statius 96P. Laurens
1996, ed. F. Delarue, S. Georgacopoulou,

and A.-M. Taisne, Poitiers 1996, pp. 247-59. By contrast, A. Hardie, Statius and the Silvae:Poets,Patronsand
Epideixis in the Graeco-RomanWorld,Liverpool 1983,
p. 176, claims that Epicureanism is the only philosophical school praised by Statius. This claim strikes us as
clearly overstated, yet it is certainly true that there are
Epicurean elements present in Statius's poetry as well
as Stoic ones. Both Pollius Felix and Manilius Vopiscus,
for example, are described as Epicureans, giving the
poems describing their villas (Silvae, 1.3 and 2.2) a clear
Epicurean colouring; see Hardie, pp. 176-9; and R. G.
M. Nisbet, 'Felicitasat Surrentum (Statius, Silvae II,2)',
Journal of RomanStudies,LxvIII, 1978, pp. 1-11.
29. S. Fernandez Mosquera and A. Azaustre Galliana,
Indices de la poesia de Quevedo,Barcelona 1993, cite 6o
references to Fortuna in Quevedo's poetry.
30o. On Quevedo's Stoicism see A. Rothe, Quevedound
Seneca: Untersuchungenzu den FriihschriftenQuevedos,
Geneva and Paris 1965; and H. Ettinghausen, Francisco
de Quevedoand theNeostoicMovement,Oxford 1972.

HILAIRE KALLENDORF AND CRAIG KALLENDORF

140

Literary mannerism, the characteristic style of Silver Age Latin, has been described
as learned and allusive, tending towards far-fetched expressions, excessive eulogy and
artificial conceits31-a description which could be applied to Quevedo's poetry as well. It
should therefore not surprise us to see Quevedo marking a number of artfully turned
phrases in his copy of Statius (see Appendix I: Silvae, 1.2.130-3, 153-7, 185-7; 1.3.47-8,
82; V.2.7,

80o).

In the end, however, there is another reason why Quevedo was so interested in Statius
-one

so important

to him that he set it out in his own hand on the flyleaf of his book

(see Fig. 68, and Appendix I, Title page):

Don Enrique de Villena in the commentary to the translation that he made of Vergil in Spanish for
the King of Navarre (a book which I have in manuscript in my library, and it is excellent) says, speak-

ing of Statius:'and at the end he wasa Christian,knowingthe Catholictruth'.

How Quevedo came to believe that Statius was a Christian, and what this belief might
have meant for his understanding of the Silvae, require some careful analysis. On the
basis of what is known today, there is no reason to believe that Statius was a Christian; and
the temptation is simply to dismiss Quevedo's statement as the result of the same kind of
second-rate scholarship which characterises his Anacre6ncastellano.32Yet while his knowledge of Greek attracted criticism from his contemporaries, Quevedo's scholarly procedure
in other areas generally met the usual standards of his day--that is, he regularly consulted
previously published texts and humanist commentaries, cited parallel passages from other
works and inserted alternative readings into the margins of his books, just as we see him
doing with his copy of Statius.33 In his Sueiio del infierno, Quevedo showed himself well
enough informed about the details of contemporary humanist method to condemn Julius
Caesar Scaliger and other humanists of the day to hell for sins which are fundamentally

31. J. W. Duff, A Literary History of Rome in the Silver

Age, from Tiberius to Hadrian, ed. A. M. Duff, New York
1927, repr. 1964, pp. 393-4. J.-M. Croisille, 'Stace,
peintre de realia', in Delarue et al., eds (as in n. 28),
comes to a similar conclusion about Statius's style:
'L'artifice regne dans son oeuvre, oil se manifeste le
goait de l'imitation, qui refuse le primat du 'naturalisme' et qui constitue une des charact6ristiques du
"mani6risme"' (pp. 244-5). The importance of Statius's
Silvae for the understanding of literary mannerism was
signalled by H. Friedrich, 'Uber die Silvae des Statius
(inbesondere V,4 Somnus) und die Frage des literari-

schen Manierismus', Romanische Literaturen, Aufsiitze I,

Frankreich, Frankfurt am Main 1972, pp. 34-55 (first
publ. 1963). Oddly, however, even though Friedrich
devotes an entire section of his essay to 'Somnus' (pp.
48-55) and lists at the end (p. 55) a number of Renaissance and Baroque poets who imitated this poem, he
does not include Quevedo.
32. See above, p. 138 and nn. 22, 24.
33. See above, n. 3, and for Statius Appendix I and
below, passim. Quevedo is known to have been less

rigorous in his scholarly procedures than the leading

European humanists of his time. For example, when he
marked up corrections to his copy of Dante, he failed
to realise that the earlier manuscript from which he
in origin and
had taken them was Emilio-Romagnan
therefore contained dialect which was further from
Dante's original Tuscan idiom than that of the printed
text (see Cacho Casal, as in n. 3, p. 65). In another
example, in La cuna y la sepultura Quevedo used quotations from St Augustine which he took from Prosper
of Aquitane's compilation Sententiae ex Augustino delibatae; in fact, he mistook some statements of Prosper
for those of Augustine; see S. L6pez Poza, 'Quevedo,
humanista cristiano', Quevedo a nueva luz: Escritura y
politica, Malaga 1997, pp. 72-3. On the other hand, as
the young Quevedo
L6pez Poza notes (pp.
68-9),
earned the respect ofJustus Lipsius, who praised him in
the course of their correspondence; and as Cacho Casal
points out (p. 64), his emendatio ope codicurm using a
codex pervetustus, although unacceptable today, showed
considerable philological proficiency for his place and
time.

QUEVEDO

AND STATIUS

141

philological.34 It is, therefore, reasonable to assume that Quevedo arrived at his belief that
Statius was a Christian by using the scholarly resources typical of his age.
Like many learned men of the Renaissance, Quevedo believed that approximations
to Christian truth could be detected in some pagan literature: as he wrote in the introduction to his translation of Pseudo-Phocylides: 'Thus, in Phocylides will be found rules for
living like a Christian, naturally and civilly, a thing worthy of singular admiration.'35 And
like many of his contemporaries, Quevedo was not always clear or even consistent in his
explanations for this phenomenon. In his Virtudmilitante,for example, he writes: 'Because
Seneca and Epictetus, who lived in the time of the Apostles and saw the deeds of the
Christians' faith, and the perfection of their life, and that they consigned it [their life] to
the flames and to the knife, not only with valour but with pleasure inspired by love, they
fashioned what they wrote in accordance with what they saw in such a way that their doctrine, with an aftertaste of that awareness, is in many respects very similar to our truth.'
At another point in the same work, however, he continues: 'Not only does God give to
the pauper and command all to give to him, but poverty itself is a gift and favour of God.
The pagans attained this most pious truth: Lucan, book 5.'36 Suggesting that pagan poets
could attain adumbrations of Christian truth by natural reason is not the same as suggesting that God communicated those adumbrations to them. The major difference between
the two approaches developed here is obviously chronological. Lucan, like the other Silver
Age authors to whom Quevedo was drawn, lived after the birth of Christ and therefore
had the opportunity to come into contact with Christian truth: 'The philosophers and
poets who lived in the time of the persecutions of the Christian martyrs have a great
advantage over all the others; they saw them despise life, triumph in death, preach the
Gospel; they could hear the Apostles, and for this reason they excelled the others in their
teaching. Seneca, Epictetus, Juvenal and Persius are examples ...'7' Not all the Silver Age
34. F. de Quevedo, Suefios y discursos, ed. J. O. Crosby,
Madrid 1993, P. 256; see also R. A. Del Piero, 'Algunas
fuentes de Quevedo', Nueva revista defilologia hispdnica,
L. Schwartz,
'La transXII.1, 1958, pp. 36-52
(49-50).
misi6n renacentista de poesfa grecolatina y dos sonetos
de Quevedo (Parnaso, Erato, XXXVIII y XXXIX)', Edad
de Oro, xII, 1993, pp. 303-20 (304), in discussing the
Suenio del infierno, concludes that the work 'define indirectamente a su autor como humanista de su epoca que
al tanto de las pricticas hermeesti perfectamente
netiticas en boga en la primera decada del XVII y de la
ideologfa que las sustentaba'.
35. 'Asf que, en ... Phocilides se hallarin reglas para
vivir cristiana, natural y politicamente,
cosa digna de
singular admiraci6n'. Francisco de Quevedo, Obras completas, ed. Astrana Marfn, 2nd edn (as in n. 3), quoted
in D. G. Castanien, 'Quevedo's Translation of the
Pseudo-Phocylides,
Philological Quarterly, xxxx, 1961,
PP. 44-52 (44-5)36. 'Porque Seneca, i Epicteto que bibieron en tiempo
de los ap6stoles, i bian las hazafias de la fe de los
christianos, i la perfecii6n de la vida, i que la daban al
fuego, i al cuchillo, no s6lo con valentfa sino con gozo

enamorado, confacionaron con lo que vian lo que escrivieron de tal manera que su doctrina, con resabios de
aquella atenci6n es en muchas cosas bien parezida a
nuestra verdad' (Virtud militante, as in n. 3, p. 134). 'No
s6lo da Dios al pobre y manda que todos le den, sino
que la propia pobreza es merced y didiva de Dios.
Alcanzaron esta piadosisima verdad los gentiles: Lucan.,
lib. 5.' (Epistolario completo,as in n. 15, p. 325; see Lucan,
On the problem of how RenaisPharsalia, v.523-31).
sance writers explained the congruence of pagan literature with Christian truth see C. Kallendorf, 'From
Virgil to Vida: The Poeta Theologus in Italian Renaissance
Commentary', Journal of the History of Ideas, i.vI, 1995,
pp. 41-62, with accompanying bibliography.
37. 'Gran vantaja hacen a todos los fil6sofos y poetas
los que dellos fueron en el tiempo de las persecuciones
de los mirtires cristianos; vieronlos despreciar la vida,
triunfar en la muerte, predicar el Evangelio; pudieron
ofr a los ap6stoles, y por esto excedieron en la doctrina
a los demdis. Son ejemplo S6neca, Epicteto, Juvenal y
Persio ...' This is a note to Quevedo's translation of
Seneca's 'Epfstola XLI', in his Obras completas (as in n.
io), I, Obras en prosa, p.
1913.

142

HILAIRE KALLENDORF AND CRAIG KALLENDORF

authors, however, were as sympathetic to Christianity as Quevedo felt they should have
been. Martial, for instance, produced many commendable sentiments 'with a profane
mouth';38 and Tacitus was severely criticised for being anti-Christian at a time when he
could (and should) have been sympathetic to the new religion.39 The Stoic authors fared
better; for Quevedo argued that there were close links between this pagan philosophy and
Christianity which could be confirmed by solid textual evidence. In his Doctrinaestoica,for
example, he cited parallels between the book ofJob and Epictetus and argued that Zeno
could have known the Old Testament.41 In no case, however, did Quevedo go so far in his
printed works as to assert that these pagan writers actually converted to Christianity.
The Princeton Aldine allows us to see that Quevedo assigned the author of the Silvae
a status we could not have anticipated from his other writings. His statement on the flyleaf
is a direct quotation from Enrique de Villena's translation of the Aeneid,where it concludes
a gloss to Vergil's prologue.41 Villena, one of the leading figures of Spanish intellectual
life in the first three decades of the fifteenth century,42took this idea directly or indirectly
from Dante, who appears to have invented it in PurgatorioXXII.73, where Statius offers a
moving tribute to Vergil, his salvific Muse: 'Per te poeta fui, per te Christiano...' ('through
you I was a poet, through you a Christian...').43 Quevedo was familiar with Dante and
owned a 1578 Venetian edition of the Divina Commediacontaining the famous commentary of Cristoforo Landino.44 In his commentary on Purgatorio XXII, Landino simply
paraphrased Statius's statement that he had become a Christian by reading Vergil and
explained the literal meaning of Dante's words, without suggesting in any way that the
38. '[C]on profana boca'. Quevedo, Epistolario completo
(as in n. 15), p. 324.
39. The criticism comes in Quevedo's Lince de Italia,
in his Obras completas (as in n. io), I, Obras en prosa,
p. 896; see V. Roncero L6pez, 'Quevedo y Tacito',
Cuadernos de Aldeau, VI.io, 199o, pp. 59-76 (6o-i).
40. D. G. Castanien, 'Quevedo's Version of Epictetus' Encheiridion', Symposium, XVIII, 1964, pp. 68-78.
Quevedo claims in his Doctrina estoica that Epictetus
translates parts of Job (Francisco de Quevedo, Obras
completas en prosa, ed. F. Buendia, 3rd edn, Madrid 1945,
p. 874). He repeats his claim that Zeno and Epictetus
knew the book ofJob in La cuna y la sepultura (ibid., pp.
1062-3). For the best discussion of the intersection of
Quevedo's philological methods with his faith see L6pez
Poza (as in n. 33).
41. Enrique de Villena, Traducci6n y glosas de la Eneida,
Libroprimero, ed. P. M. Catedra, Salamanca 1989, 1, p. 61.
In the first part of this gloss Villena describes the works
of Statius known to him. Quevedo owned a manuscript
copy of Villena's work, as we know from his dedicatory
letter to Count-Duke Olivares of his edition of the works
of Fray Luis de Le6n (published in 1631): '... en mi
poder tengo un libro grande del infante don Enrique
de Villena, manuscrito, digno de grande estimaci6n ...'
See his Epistolario completo (as in n. 15), p.
22.9.
42. Don Enrique de Arag6n was the Marqu6s de
and was henceforth known as
Villena (1384-1434)

Enrique de Villena. His translation of the Aeneid, one of

the first vernacular versions of the poem, was completed
between 1427 and 1428, according to his own account,
in one year and twelve days. To his translation he added
a commentary and a life of Vergil. He also translated
into Spanish Dante's Divina commedia and the Rhetorica
ad Heren nium.
43. Dante provided further details in Purgatorio XXII
xv. 76-91, but we have found no previous textual source
for these. See M. P. Stocchi, 'I1 cristianesimo di Stazio
(Purg. XXII) e un'ipotesi del Poliziano', Miscellanea di
studi offerta a Armando Balduino e Bianca Bianchi, Padua
1962, pp. 41-5; S. Mariotti, 'I1 cristianesimo di Stazio
in Dante secondo Poliziano', Letteratura e critica: Studi
in onore di N. Sapegno, Rome 1975, II, PP- 149-61; G.
Brugnoli, 'Statius Cristianus', Italianistica, xvII, 1988,
pp. 9-15 (13-15); and G. Padoan, 'I1 mito di Teseo e il
cristianesimo di Stazio', Lettere italiane, xI, 1959, pp.
432-5744. See Cacho Casal (as in n. 3). Disappointingly,
Quevedo did not annotate Purgatorio XXII.73 in his
copy of the Divina Commedia. We are grateful to Shawn
Edwards, of the Rare Book and Special Collections
Department, University Library, University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign, for answering our enquiries about
this book.

QUEVEDO AND STATIUS

143

story might be untrue. This strategy, which was common among commentators on Dante
until the end of the sixteenth century, contrasts with the more critical approach of humanists to Statius: the idea that he converted to Christianity does not seem to have gained
acceptance outside of Spain.45
Quevedo's belief that Statius was a Christian explains the appearance of substantive
Christian themes in four of his silvas, a collection of poems which are otherwise pagan in
theme, tone and reference. (A full, ordered list of Quevedo's silvas is given below in our
Appendix ii.) The most striking example of a silva with a Christian theme is 'Deja la procesi6n, suibete al paso' (no. 36 in our listing), in which the poet complains bitterly about
the abuse of adornment among penitents. Likewise, hell, the demons and the archangels
figure prominently in Quevedo's silva written to Pride (no. 13, 11.22, 63-4). Another silva
with powerful Christian overtones throughout is a poem which bears the title 'Alaba la
Calamidad' (no. 24). The numerous references to God, Moses and the Hebrews in this
poem (for example, in 11.3, 24-5, 28) make it difficult to categorise as merely a meditation
on Neostoic themes, although it is certainly that as well. Additionally, there are several
biblical allusions in '?C6mo pudiera ser hecho piadoso' (no. 34), a poem about beautifil
hair which is cut off, written in direct imitation of Statius, as we shall see. In this case
Quevedo links his Statian theme to the biblical stories of Absalom (1. 43) and Samson (1.
45); in another, his poem about ancient and modern Rome (no. io), he incorporates
both Roman heroes (11.98, 138, 142) and Catholic popes (11.168-74). Finally, there are
Christian themes which appear in Quevedo's poems right alongside their counterparts
from classical myth: in 'Deja l'alma y los ojos' (no. 35), for example, the disobedient
seraph (i.e. Satan) is mentioned (1. 22) along with the classical figures Nature, Death and
Love (11. 23, 27, 39). This synthesis of the classical with the Christian is typical of the
humanist Quevedo.
In seeking to understand what drew Quevedo to the Roman poet, then, we need to
look beyond the Statian Silvae themselves to the broader question of their reception in
Golden Age Spain. At this point, we can make two observations. First, the Greek references in the poems were still problematic in a Latin-centred humanist milieu such as that
in which Quevedo was working. Second, Statius had been referred to as a Christian by
both Dante and Enrique de Villena. And if Statius was believed to have been a Christian,
his poems could be assumed to be capable of guiding the reader towards biblical truth.

Today the silva has receded into our cultural past, to the extent that there is considerable
uncertainty even as to the meaning of the term. Described by Elias Rivers as the 'Baroque
genre par excellenceof Spanish poetry',46 the silva was a poetic form at the very centre of
literary life in Spain in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.47 As will become clear,
45. We are currently at work on a full study of how
long it remained viable to consider Statius a Christian,
and in which scholarly circles.
46. '[E]l gnero barroco por excelencia de la poesia
espaflola'. E. L. Rivers, 'La problematica silva espafiola',

Nueva revista de filologia hispdnica, xxxvi. 1, 1988, pp.

249-60 (253).
47. See A. Egido, 'La silva en la poesfa andaluza del
barroco', Silva de Andalucia (Estudios sobrepoesia barroca),
Malaga ig9o, p. io; later in the article (p. 25), Egido

144

HILAIRE KALLENDORF AND CRAIG KALLENDORF

however, there was also considerable uncertainty about the literary definition of the term
at the end of the sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth centuries; that is, precisely at the time when Quevedo was annotating his copy of Statius and starting to write
his own poems in imitation of them. Quevedo's role in the definitional controversy has
been obscured by the broader movement of subsequent literary history; but as we strive to
recover that role, we shall also discover that Statius played a larger part in Golden Age
culture than previous scholarship has recognised.
Statius's Silvae disappeared during the Middle Ages. They were rediscovered in 1417
by Poggio Bracciolini, from whose manuscript, now lost, all modern versions of the text
derive.48 A copy of the editioprinceps (Venice 1472) entered the library of the Florentine
humanist Angelo Poliziano, who produced a lengthy commentary on Statius's Silvae and
published four poems of his own under the same title.49 Subsequent commentaries on
the Silvae were published by Domitius Calderinus (Rome 1475) and Joannes Bernartius
(Antwerp 1599),'50 and Lipsius and both Scaligers were familiar with the poems.51 Such
interest in turn stimulated poetic compositions in the genre, in Italy by, among others,
Lorenzo de' Medici, Bernardo Tasso, Luigi Alamanni and Teofilo Folengo.52
Statius entered Spanish Neo-Latin culture during this same period. Fray Luis de Le6n
knew both Statius and Poliziano;5"and several sixteenth-century Spanish authors cultivated
the silva tradition. Deferrandoleone,a direct imitation of Silvae, 1I.15, 'Leo mansuetus', was
included by Martin Ivarra in the Epigrammatonlibellus which forms an appendix to his
edition of Miguel Verino's Disticha (Barcelona 151 2); Juan Vazquez Castellano, who published an edition of the Silvae of Statius (Paris 1518), wrote a Sylva cui titulus Parrhisis
(Paris 1522); Juan Angel Gonzalez was the author of De origineet laudibuspoeseossylva (s.l.

claims that '[l]a silva era conocida y practicada por

todos'.
48. All existing manuscripts of the Silvae derive from
one copied c. 143o, which is now in Madrid, Biblioteca
Nacional MS 3678. The poems began circulating in
1453, when Poggio moved to Florence and this manuscript began to be copied; and they became popular in
the following generations. On the recovery of the Silvae
by the Italian humanists see R. Sabbadini, Le scoperte dei
codici latini e greci ne' secoli XIV e XV, 2 vols, Florence
1905-14, repr. 1967, I, pp. 82, 150, 153, and II, pp.
See also the entry by M. D. Reeve in Texts and
252-3.
Transmission: A Survey of the Latin Classics, ed. L. D.
Reynolds, Oxford 1986, s.v. 'Statius', pp. 394-9, esp.

397-9-

49. Poliziano's annotated copy of the editio princeps

is now in Rome, Biblioteca Corsiniana (shelf-mark 50F-37). For his commentary on the Silvae see Angelo
Poliziano, Commento inedito alle Selve di Stazio, ed. L. C.
Martinelli, Florence 1978; see also idem, Silvae, ed. F.
Bausi, Florence 1996, containing references to recent
bibliography on Poliziano and his work on Statius.
50. P. M. Clogan, 'The Renaissance Commentators on
Statius', Acta Conventus Neo-Latini Torontonensis: Proceedings of the Seventh International Congress of Neo-Latin Studies

(Toronto 1988), ed. A. Dalzell, C. Fantazzi and R. J.

Schoeck, Binghamton 1991, pp. 273-951. In 1577 Lipsius offered manuscripts and advice
to his friend Jan Leernouts (1545-1619), who he had
heard was preparing an edition of Statius; and in a
letter to William Barclay in 1580, he emended some
passages from the Silvae and expressed admiration for
Statius.Julius Caesar Scaliger's Poeticeslibriseptem(Lyons
1561) praises Statius, though less enthusiastically than
Vergil; unlike many scholars of his day, Scaliger professed to prefer the epics to the Silvae. His son Joseph
in turn offered help to three different scholars (Jan
Woverius, Friedrich Lindenbruch and Janus Gruterus)
who were planning or working on editions of their own.
See H.-J. van Dam, 'The Coming of the Silvae to the
Netherlands', in F. Delarue et al., eds (as in n. 28), pp.
315-24.
52. See K. Vossler, La soledaden la poesiaespafiola,tr.J.
Miguel Sacristan, Madrid 1941, PP. 97-8; Friedrich (as
in n. 31), pp. 43-4; E. Asensio, 'Un Quevedo inc6gnito:
Las "silvas"',Edadde Oro,II, 1983, pp. 13-48 (23); Rivers
(as in n. 46), pp. 251-2; andJauralde Pou (as in n. 6),
pp. 157-66.
53. Egido (as in n. 47), PP. 15, 21.

QUEVEDO AND STATIUS

1520, second edition

145

1525) and Ad D. Menciam Mendoziam silva (s.l. c. 1540); Francisco

Sanchez de las Brozas (El Brocense) published an edition of Poliziano's Silvae with commentary (Salamanca 1554, reprinted 1596); and Alvar G6mez de Castro included 'De
nova cathedrarum erectione in Toletana Schola sylva cui titulus Nymphe' in his Edyllia
aliquot, sive poematia (Lyons 1588).54
The vernacular silva tradition in Spain evolved somewhat differently. So far as we
know, Statius's Silvae were not translated into Spanish in their entirety until after 170oo.5?
The term silva, however, appears in several titles of vernacular works throughout the
sixteenth century. Pedro de Mexia's Silva de varia lecci6n(1542) uses the term to refer to a
compilation of curiosities; the Silva de romances(1550) is a collection of poems all in the
same metre but with different contents and styles; and Julian de Medrano's Silva curiosa
(1583) is a collection of assorted verse and prose extracts from various authors, as well as
a collection of traveljournal excerpts of an autobiographical nature.56
At this point, one must wonder what generic definition could embrace such a variety
of literary works. Renaissance scholars derived the word silva from the Greek word hyle
(iV5r), meaning 'material' or 'matter'; and from this origin arose its early Renaissance
meaning as the primary material from which a literary work was constructed.57 Suetonius
and other Roman authors had taken the literal meaning of the Latin term silva, a woodland or forest, which was uncultivated and without order, and made it metaphorical.58 The
word thus came to mean a literary miscellany or hotchpotch of various genres, gathering
together heterogeneous forms of literary matter. Quintilian, the sensible rhetorician,
wrote pejoratively of silvae as improvised verses.59 Spanish and Italian translations, however, preserve resonances from both the literal meaning and its metaphorical extensions,61
so that the pun selva/silva became popular in the Renaissance and was used for example
54. See Egido (as in n. 47), p. 22; Asensio (as in n.
in L6pez
p. 2'; J. F. Alcina, 'La silva neolatina',
Bueno, ed. (as in n. 6), pp. 129-55; idem, Repertorio de
la poesia latina del Renacimiento en Espaiia, Salamanca
and, for an excellent
1995, pp. 27-8, 87-8, 99-1oo;
discussion of the Neo-Latin silva tradition in Spain and
elsewhere, Candelas Colodr6n (as in n. 7), pp. 17-22.
T. S. Beardsley, Jr., Hispano-Classical Translations
55.
Printed Between 1482 and 1699, Pittsburgh 197o, does
not list any complete translation of Statius published
before 17oo; and M. Menendez Pelayo, Bibliografia
hispano-latina cl(sica, ed. E. Sinchez Reyes, Santander
1950, III, pp. 332-5, cites only a couple of translations
of brief passages from the same period. This omission
takes on added significance in the light of the fact
that Spanish humanism in general was marked by an
unusually high level of translation into the vernacular;
see 0. Di Camillo, 'Humanism in Spain', Renaissance
Humanism: Foundations, Forms, and Legacy, ii, Humanism
beyond Italy, ed. A. Rabil, Jr., Philadelphia
1988, pp.
52),

55-108 (58-9).
56. Egido (as in n. 47), P- 24Vossler (as in n. 52), pp. 98-9. For the etymology
57of silva see Poliziano, Commento inedito (as in n. 49), p.

8; Oxford Latin Dictionary, ed. P. G. W. Glare, Oxford

1982, s.v. 'silva'; and Rocha de Sigler (as in n. 12), p.
45, quoting Isidore of Seville, Origines, XII.3-.1.
58. Suetonius, De grammaticis, x (quoting a letter to
Laelius Hermas from Ateius): 'Hylen nostram aliis
memento commendare, quam omnis generis coegimus,
uti scis, octingentos in libros.' Friedrich (as in n. ,31), p.
44, explains that: 'Der Titel der Sammlung beruht auif
der antiken Verwendung des Wortes "Wald" (silva) ffir
das Chaotische, Ungeformte,
ungeordnet Mannigfaltige, im Gegensatz zum. Geordneten,
majestditischen
Hain (nemus).'
59. Quintilian, Institutio oratoria, x.3.17: 'Diversum est
eorum vitium qui primum decurrere per materiam stilo
quam velocissimo volunt, et sequentes calorem atque
impetum ex tempore scribunt; hanc silvain vocant.
Repetunt deinde et componunt quae effuderant sed
verba emendantur et numeri, manet in rebus temere
congestis, quae fuit, levitas.' Quoted in Rocha de Sigler
(as in n. 12), p. 45.
6o. See Rocha de Sigler (as in n. 12), p. 45.

146

HILAIRE KALLENDORF AND CRAIG KALLENDORF

by Lorenzo de' Medici;61it was taken a step further into the realm of romantic imagination
by El Brocense, who described the silva as a secret poem written by a lonely poet sitting in
a forest.62 In short, by the end of the sixteenth century, the term silva seems to have conjured up a variety of connotations, including those it had acquired in antiquity.63
By about 1613, however, this open-endedness was narrowed in Spain into a very
precise definition: a silva came to mean a silva metrica,a poem which combined hendecasyllables and heptasyllables, though not in a fixed pattern.64 The evolution took place
very rapidly. Pedro Espinosa's Flores(completed by 16o3, printed 1605) lacks both poems
labelled silvas and anything written in hendecasyllabic/heptasyllabic metre. A manuscript
from Granada bearing the title Poetica silva (c. 1605) uses the term silva to mean miscellany; but the eight poems entitled silva which it contains are all written in octava real or
hendecasyllabic tercets. Juan Antonio Calder6n's Flores (collected by 1611), however,
contains various poems in the hendecasyllabic/heptasyllabic metre, some of which are
called silvas; and Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional MS 3,888 (1614), containing inter alia the
Silvas of Francisco de Rioja, firmly associates the word with the new form." A number of
writers of this time or shortly afterwards-Juan de Arguijo, Don Francisco de Calatayud,
Gutierre Lobo, Agustin de Tejada, Rodrigo Caro, Francisco de Trillo y Figueroa, Pedro
Soto de Rojas and Lope de Vega-wrote silvas of some distinction; but the key figure in
this generic evolution was Luis de G6ngora. The manuscript version of his Soledadprimera
began circulating in 1613; the Soledadeswere written in the new form, the silva mentrica,
and were very popular, as is evidenced by the numerous early printed editions of them as

61. Lorenzo de' Medici, who was a friend and patron

of Poliziano, wrote two Selve d'amore at some point after
1486; they were first published as Selve damore composte
dal Magnijfiro Lorenzo, Florence 1518. Both are pastoral
poems which concentrate largely on descriptions of the
landscape; and the silva/selva pun in the title is continued in specific phrases of the poems: 'nel loco alto
e silvestre' (Selva I, stanza 122, 1. 1); 'e selve trarre e
pinger sassi' (Selva II, stanza 4, 11.5-6). See Lorenzo de'
Medici, Stanze, ed. R. Castagnola, Florence 1986, pp.
LI, 5o, 63.
62. 'Sed crediderim ... Siluarum inscriptione delectatum, eo quod in siluis scripserit, & in secreto nemore.'
Quoted in Rivers (as in n. 46), p. 255. El Brocense
made this remark in his edition of Poliziano's Silvae
(Salarnanca 1554). For a poet of the English Renaissance who exploited the romantic connotations of the
silva as a poem written in a forest see Ben Jonson's The
Forrest (1616) and the studies of A. Jacobson Lavinger,
'The Sylva and Civilizing Form in Ben Jonson's The
Forrest and The lJnder-Wood', Ph.D. thesis, Princeton
University 1977; and A. Fowler, 'The Silva Tradition
in Jonson's The oTrrest',in PoeticrTraditios of the English
Renaissance, ed. M. Mack and G. deForest Lord, New
Haven and London 1982, pp. 163-6.
63. See Vossler (as in n. 52), p. 99: 'La palabra
"silva" hace pensar en cosas diferentes: bosque, silencio,

soledad del bosque-materia iUrj-, colecci6n de

materias, miscelinea, conflusi6n-improvisaci6n, raptus,
entusiasmo-, forma disuelta v combinaci6n de versos
diferentes ...' For the range of meanings present in
ancient discussions of silva see D. F. Bright, Elaborate
Disarray:The Nature of Statits' Silvae, Meisenheim am
Glan 198o, pp. 20-49.
64. Egido (as in n. 47), pp. 41-85. See E. Asensio and
M. J. Woods, 'Formas y contenidos: La silva y la poesia
descriptiva', Historia y critica de la literaturaespafiola,
ed. F. Rico, III, Siglosde oro:Barroco,ed. B. Wardropper,
Barcelona 1983, p. 679: 'A partir del triunfo tan pol6mico de G6ngora ... la silva suscita una pequefia revoIuici6n'.
65. See Asensio (as in n. 52), pp. 24-7. The terminological fluidity makes primacy difficult to establish, but
Asensio's chronology seems reasonable to us. Vossler
(as in n. 52), pp. 99-1oo, proposed Juan de Jiuregi as
the author who introduced the term silva into Spanish
in his translation of Tasso's Aminta; Egido (as in n. 47),
pp. 34-6, gives primacy to a poem of Espinosa's which
can be described as a silva 'con cierta aproximacion',
and considers Jdiuregi's translation as the second instance of the use of the term, 'bien que atfpico, por sut
See also Rocha de Sigler (as in
verso librfsimo' (p.
35)n. 12), pp. 48-50.

QUEVEDO AND STATIUS

147

part of G6ngora's Obrascompletas.66 Although G6ngora himself never called his poems
silvas, his Soledadesconsistently follow the pattern of the silva metrica,alternating freely
between hendecasyllables (75%) and heptasyllables (25%).
Neither Quevedo nor Statius has been properly situated in this story. If we turn first
to Quevedo's silvas (Appendix ii) we find twenty-one silvas metricas, which suggests that
he was fully informed about metrical developments and interested in showing his ability
to handle the new form.67 We also find fifteen silvas written in eight other verse forms,
ranging from Pindaric odes to octavas reales.68Conceivably, Quevedo chose this genre
precisely because he was attracted to the idea of a flexible, innovative form which would
allow him to write a miscellany of occasional poems in a personal, lyric mode without the
constrictions of dominant metres or themes.
As we have seen, however, G6ngora's version of the silva was quite different, in that
his Soledadeswere marked by metrical homogeneity. His poems also employ a mode of
enunciation which is much less personal than Quevedo's.69 The contrast in styles is pronounced enough for Nadine Ly to have concluded that G6ngora's poems, though taking
the silvas inmtricasas their point of departure, should be recognised as inaugurating a new
genre, the soledad.7IWhatever the merits of this view, it is clear that by the time Quevedo
returned to Spain in 1619, G6ngora's version of the silva had prevailed. We may well
imagine that this displacement of the earlier, broader form of the genre by the popular
but poetically constrictive silva mertricaoffended Quevedo not only as a scholar but also
from a personal point of view. It was G6ngora, after all, who had questioned his competence some years before-and the dispute still continued."' The issue of the evolution
of a poetic term now developed into a critical controversy in which Quevedo consciously
allied himself with Statius, against those like G6ngora who were moving the genre in new
directions.72 In 1629, Quevedo included a reference to the silva problem in the dedication
66. There were eight editions of G6ngora's Obras
between 1636 and 1667: Madrid 1636, Zaragoza 1643,
Lisbon 1646-7, Seville 1648, Madrid 1654, Zaragoza
1654, Brussels 1659 and Lisbon 1667.
67. Quevedo also used the silva mitrica verse form in
two other works, 'Ligrimas de Jeremfas castellanas' and
'Hericlito cristiano' (1613); see Jauralde Pou (as in n.
6), p. 173.
68. These

figures are derived from A. Alatorre,

'Quevedo: De la "silva" al "ovillejo"', Homnenajea Eugenio
Asensio, Madrid 1988, p. 6 n. 12. Asensio (as in n. 52),
p. 34, mistakenly counted one poem in octaves as a silva
mulrica, giving him 2 2 silvas itlricas and 14 poems
written in other mnetres.
69. Rivers (as in n. 46), pp. 257-8, explains that the
Statian silva as developed by Quevedo is marked by
the firm presence of the lyric 'I', but that G6ngora's
Soledades cultivate a more obscure, less intimate tone.
7o. See N. Ly, 'Las Soledades: "Esta poesfa infitil"',
Critic6n, xxx, 1985, pp. 7-42. Ly quotes Garcia de
Salcedo Coronel, who published a volume of Obras de
don Luis de G6ngora comentadas (Madrid 1636) in which
he compared the Soledades 'con las silvas estacianas,

poniendo de relieve su cari-cter mezclado v variado y la

analogia que relaciona el genero poetico de la silva con
la palabra soledad por medio de la silva' (Lv, p. 12).
Salcedo Coronel added: 'Presumo que Don Luis quiso
a esta voz, Silva, correspondiese
Soledad en nuestra
lengua, v no impropiamente,
pues si la silva significa
en castellano selva o bosque, ;que cosa mas solitaria?'
(ibid.). From this passage Ly concludes that from as
early as 1636, G6ngora's poems were seen by his immediate successors as both closely connected to the Statian
silva and radically departing from it (ibid., p. 2 1).
71. See above, n. 22.
72. For the controversy between Quevedo and G6ngora see Rivers (as in n. 46), p. '57; and idem, 'Problems of Genre in Golden Age Poetry', Modern Language
Notes, cII, 1987, pp. 2o6-19. As Alatorre points out,
however, Quevedo soon adapted even the format of the
silva mitrica to suit his own interests and to differentiate
his work from that of G6ngora. He hypothesises that
Quevedo's silvas ultimately mutated into what should
more properly be called ovillejos, or silvas with paired
dactylic hexameters. Alatorre (as in n. 68), pp. 27-8.

148
to Count-Duke

HILAIRE KALLENDORF AND CRAIG KALLENDORF

Olivares of his edition of the works of Fray Luis de Le6n (published

in

1631):
And Statius, in Book v of the Silvas, 'Epicedion in patrem', speaking of the poets, says, when discussing
Lycophron, the one who taught this sect in Greek: 'the songs of Battus's son and the concealments of
the black Lycophron'. Words of greater opprobrium could not be studied. It is not only reprehensible
to write obscurely, but [it is] also unclear.73

In this passage Lycophron, who was notorious for his obscurity, is associated with G6ngora
and the culteranos,while Quevedo appropriates Statius as the model for his own vision of
the genre. It should also be noted that the line he quotes here from Statius, Silvae,v.3.157,
is marked in the Princeton Aldine (sig. i3V).
Although it has long been recognised that Statius had some impact in Golden
Age Spain, modern scholarship has hesitated to assign his poetry an important place in
the development of the Spanish silva.74 The evidence, however, suggests that through
Quevedo, the role played by Statius in the development of the Spanish silva was more
extensive than has been thought. The fact that Quevedo read his copy of Statius carefully,
returned to it over the years and even used it in his efforts to define the silva as a genre,
suggests very strongly that the Silvae provided the basic model for him as he wrote his own
poems in this form. Crucially, there is metrical variety in the Statian Silvae; and this was
central to Quevedo's vision.75 By modelling his collection of poems closely on the works

'Y Estacio, en el libro V de las silvas, "Epicedion

73in patrem", hablando de los poetas, cuando trata de
Licofr6n, que fue quien en griego ensefi6 esta seta
dice: "Carmina Battiadae latebrasque
Lycophronis
atri" / "Escondrijos del ennegrecido Licofr6n". No se
[N]o
pudieron estudiar palabras de mayor oprobio...
s6lo es reprehensible escribir escuro, sino poco claro':
Epistolario conpleto (as in n. 15), p. 224. Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional MS 3678 has ari at the end of Silvae,
v.3.157; modern texts usually print arti, but the Aldine
edition has atri, which is of course what Quevedo quotes.
74. For example, Aurora Egido notes that a number
of poets wrote silvas which are in her opinion clearly
connected to Statian models; yet she insists that Statius
was not an immediate generative model for the silva
mdtrica in Spain. See Egido (as in n. 47), PP- 45 (Francisco de Calatayud), 53 (G6ngora), 59 (Francisco de
Calatayud, again), 66 (Francisco de Trillo y Figueroa),
67 (Pedro Soto de Rojas) and 75 (Antonio L6pez de
Mendoza); her conclusion is found on p. 15. Rivers (as
in n. 46), p. 255, notes that no school of translators and
imitators like the one around Horace arose around
Statius, which leads him to conclude that Quevedo's
imitation of 'Somnus' appears to be the most direct
contact between Statius and the 17th-century Spanish
silva. Lia Schwartz and Ignacio Arellano, in their edition
of Francisco de Quevedo, Un Herdclito Cristiano, Canta
sola a Lisi y otros poemas, Barcelona 1998, p. xxxix, note
in general terms that Quevedo drew from Statius and

his Neo-Latin imitators, and list six Sonetos of Quevedo

(58-6o and 64-66) in which they find some resemblance to particular Silvae of Statius: for example, Soneto
58, which celebrates a statue, recalls Silvae, 1.1, on the
equestrian statue of Domitian; and Sonetos 65 and 66,
on a bull killed by the king, echo Silvae, II.5, on the
death of a lion killed in the amphitheatre.
75. To be sure, there is somewhat less metrical variety
in Statius's collection than in Quevedo's. Of Statius's
32 poems, 26 are in the dominant dactylic hexameter,
four are in hendecasyllabics, and two are in Horatian
meters (one Sapphic, one Alcaic). As is often the case,
however, the problem is not with generating the statistics, but with interpreting them. Asensio (as in n. 52),
p. 16, looked at the metrical breakdown of the poems
in Quevedo's collection versus that of the poems in
Statius's and concluded that, for Quevedo, 'el propdsito
inicial de rivalizar con Estacio permitia una gran variedad de formas metricas'. Alatorre (as in n. 68) looked
at the same statistics (with one slight modification) and
emphasised difference rather than similarity, noting
that less than 20% of Statius's poems deviate from the
dominant dactylic hexameter while more than 4o%
of Quevedo's are not silvas mdtricas. While Alatorre's
observation is obviously reasonable, it seems to us that
comparison also should be made with the practice of
G6ngora; when this is done, both Statius and Quevedo
stand together as advocates of metrical variety within
the silva.

QUEVEDO AND STATIUS

149

of a classical author, Quevedo opted for the traditional humanist approach to literary
creation. In hindsight, we can see that the road G6ngora started down led to the future;
but we should still use the clues which Quevedo himself left us to try to evaluate his silvas
according to the norms by which they were written.

How did Quevedo himself envision his silvas as a group or collection? He must have been
influenced to some extent by one of the Spanish meanings of the word silva, i.e., miscellany, because his collection is ultimately quite heterogeneous in its assortment of themes,
metres and lengths of poems. If, however, the silvas are arranged in the sequence that
might have been conceptualised for them originally, as in our Appendix II, the collection
emerges with more coherence. Our method has been to list the poems in the order in
which they appear, first, in Naples, Biblioteca Nazionale MS XIV.E.46, Quevedo's early
autograph manuscript in which he conceived, corrected and re-ordered his early silvas as
a collection."7 For the rest of the poems, most of which we presume to have been written
later, we have followed the order of the 'Indice intercalado' compiled by Quevedo's
nephew and heir, Pedro Aldrete, and included by him in the earliest printed edition to
present the silvas as a group.77 We agree with Eugenio Asensio and Antonio Alatorre that
the total number of silvas should be thirty-six.78
Certain images or ideas recur in several poems in the collection: for example, the
obsession with romantic love, the pastoral image of the musician's lyre and the Neostoic
preoccupation with the goddess Fortuna appear again and again in these poems. Moreover, when the poems in the Naples manuscript are arranged in the final order designated
by the copyist (who appears to have changed his mind several times on this question), a
number of striking images manifest themselves in the collection, first as the subjects of
individual poems and then later as echoes of those motifs within other poems. For example, the first silva in the collection, 'Al tronco y a la fuente', is about a widow turtledove;
this same turtledove is recalled in the third, 'De tu peso vencido' (11.31-2); and the sixth,
';iQue de robos han visto del invierno' (11.85-90). Likewise, after the city of Rome serves
as the subject for the tenth silva, 'Esta que miras grande Roma agora', it is recalled in the
eleventh, 'En caircel de metal, ioh atrevimiento!' (1. 18). The killing of a wild boar is the
subject of 'Tii, blas6n de los bosques' (no. 29); and the animal is remembered in the context of homicide in 'Este de los demais sitios Narciso', the poem about the country home
(no. 30o, 1. 8o). Insomnia is the subject of Quevedo's fifth silva; and a direct recollection
76. We have followed the final ordering of the poems
as they are numbered in the Naples manuscript-that
is, we have ignored the crossed-out numbers which,
according to Ettinghausen, 'Un nuevo manuscrito' (as
in n. 14), p. 222 n. 10, represent earlier attempts at
ordering the poems in a sequence.
77. Las tres musas ultimas castellanas. Segunda cumbre
del parnaso espafiol de don Francisco de Quevedo y Villegas
..., ed. Pedro Aldrete Quevedo y Villegas, Madrid 1670,
p. 125. Aldrete's index lists a total of 37 'silvas, y

canciones',
although only 31 poems appear in his
edition.
78. See Asensio (as in n. 52), p. 2o; and Alatorre (as
in n. 68), p. 19. Asensio rejects one poem in the Indice
intercalado, 'Cuando glorioso entre Moises y Elias', as a
relaci6n written in octavos and therefore not a silva (pp.
Given how long this poem is, we are inclined
18-20).
to agree with him. In our opinion the list of Rocha de
Sigler (as in n. 12), p. 62, includes several doubtful
candidates.

150

HILAIRE KALLENDORF AND CRAIG KALLENDORF

of this theme comes in his 'Tiempo, que todo lo mudas' (no. 33, 11.45-8). After a ship
and the perils of sea travel are the focus of the second poem, '?D6nde vas, ignorante
navecilla', the same theme recurs in the poem addressed to Pedro de Leiva, captain
general of the Spanish navy (no. 7), and again in the one about the Duke of Pastrana's
naval victory (no. 31).

Arranging the poems in this order obviously has its advantages if it yields coherence
in the manner just described; but it also allows us to distinguish phases in Quevedo's
imitation of Statius. Among the first poems in the collection are several imitations, some
fairly close, some less so, of specific poems by Statius (see Appendix

iii,

p. 167). Then

there are quite a few poems which bear almost no relation to Statius at all, outside of a
few echoes of isolated images or tropes.79 Finally, the last group again contains a striking
sequence of close imitations of specific poems by Statius. This division of the poems into
groups corresponding to temporal phases of Quevedo's work leads in turn to some
interesting questions. Was Quevedo imitating Statius closely at the beginning, until his
ambitions were all but thwarted by G6ngora's popularisation of the silva in its non-Statian
soledad form? Did he then continue his project almost half-heartedly, writing occasional
poems which he did not attempt to model rigidly upon those of Statius? Finally, did he
return in later years to his once-cherished idea, deciding to imitate Statius formally again
and thus prove himself to be the better humanist? These are tantalising questions to which
we may ultimately never find answers, but the best place to begin exploring them is with
Quevedo's silvas themselves.
We shall start by looking at the individual verbal echoes which clearly derive from
Quevedo's annotations of Statius. A number of these passages, marked in the margins of
his Aldine edition and then repeated in his own silvas, are immediately recognisable as
reflecting Baroque preoccupations. For instance, the topos of nature outdone by art, so
frequently found in Spanish Baroque literature, was also common in Latin Silver Age
poetry. Statius specifically invokes this topos in Silvae, 11.2.52, 'Villa Surrentina Pollii
Felicis', by suggesting that the artifice of the villa has surpassed the beauty of its natural
surroundings ('Here are spots that Nature has favoured, here she has been outdone').8s
Quevedo marked this passage and then repeated the same idea of art as 'competidor valiente /de la Naturaleza' in his poem 'Tu, si en cuerpo pequefio', about the artist's pencil
(no. 17, 11. 2-3).

An even more specific example of Baroque artifice derived from Statius

appears in the fourth poem. Quevedo marked a passage in Statius's epithalamium (Silvae,
1.2.153-6) about marble fountains; and then promised, in 'Aquf la vez postrera', to build
for a natural fountain a marble mouth which will always thirst for water, in the shape of a
satyr's mouth (no. 4, 11.60-3). Finally, in a poem about romantic love, Quevedo took
advantage of one of Statius's manneristic plays on words. At Silvae, 1.3.85, he marked the
artfully ambiguous 'vitreae iuga perfida Circes' ('the perfidious height of glassy Circe') in
Statius's poem about the villa of Manilius Vopiscus. Grammatically, 'perfidious' modifies
Within this large group there appear to be
79.
identifiable
subsets, such as five poems together about
romantic love (nos 19-23) and three poems together
about various types of clocks (nos 26-8). Note also that
as Quevedo revised and ordered his poems, some of the

silvas ended up as parts of other collections: nos 19-22,

for example, were integrated into the Canta sola a Lisi.
8o. In this and other examples, for the Statian text
marked by Quevedo and the text of his annotation see
below, Appendix I.

QUEVEDO AND STATIUS

151

'height'; but it is also positioned next to 'Circe', a mythological figure to whom the reader
instinctively tries to apply the adjective. Quevedo-in typical Baroque fashion-preferred
the misreading which arises from manneristic wordplay. He therefore invoked 'the lying
Circes' in a poem entitled 'Ansia de amante porfiado' (no. 23, 1. 58)-another creatively
loose Baroque variation on this same word 'perfidious'. Through borrowings such as these,
Quevedo read (and intentionally misread) the mannerist Statius in search of highly artificial montages of images and word associations-all means by which the artifice of the poet
could exceed the beauty of nature.
It is possible to categorise Quevedo's annotations and borrowings from Statius in
terms of images to which he alluded briefly and those which inspired entire poems. We
turn now to the latter category. When he annotated Statius's poem about the elaborate
villa of Manilius Vopiscus (1.3), Quevedo noted, next to the phrase 'to tell the shapes' (1.
48), that the poet wrote 'remarkably and poetically and elegantly about sculpture'; and
later the use of visual art to call poetic figures to mind became the theme of his own poem
'Al pincel' (no. 17), in which he addressed the artist's pencil and praised it for the ways in
which it aids human memory.8" In the poem of Statius which laments the death of his
adopted son (Silvae, v.5), Quevedo marked a long passage describing the violent mourning of the poet at the death of his child (11.56-62). Many of Statius's ideas about grief are
repeated in his own poem about the widow turtledove who mourns the death of her
spouse (no. 1). 2 Another instance of expansion by Quevedo of a passage from Statius
which he admired can be seen in the poem beginning 'El metal animado' (no. 26), an
extended meditation on the commonplace theme of carpediem. Quevedo marked in his
copy an injunction by Venus, from the epithalamium for Stella and Violentilla (Silvae,
1.2.166), commanding the bride to employ her beauty and to use her fleeting gifts. His
own poem about the passage of time has a similar warning as its undercurrent, calling on
the reader to mourn the 'irrevocable hour' given by the clock, to forestall the sounding
of the next, and to make the most of the present hour.83 Finally, in perhaps the most
interesting case of a seed from Statius blossoming in Quevedo's fertile mind into an entire
poem, Quevedo marked a Statian passage about Rome (Silvae, 1.1.93-4) and then copied
some similar lines from Horace (Carmina, III.3o.8-9) in the margin. The passage from

Horace appears almost word for word in Quevedo's 'Esta que miras grande Roma agora
(no. 10o,11.9-11).

Next we shall examine some larger borrowings, by means of which Quevedo wrote
Spanish Baroque adaptations of Statius's poems (see Appendix IIi). To do this we have,
first of all, paired five poems of Quevedo with five of Statius, which loosely resemble one
another on a thematic level. Thus, Quevedo's first silva about the widow turtledove can
81. 'Eres tan fuerte, / eres tan poderoso, / que en
desprecio del Tiempo y de sus leyes, / y de la antigfiedad ciega y escura, / del seno de la edad mis
apartada / restituyes los prfncipes y reyes, / la ilustre
majestad v la hermosura / que huy6 de la memoria
sepultada.' (Blecua, ed., as in n. 1, no. 205, 11.9-16.)
82. The ideas of Statius found in this passage are
repeated loosely in his other seven epicediaand were
echoed briefly in numerous other poems by Quevedo

about death: e.g. 'Deja l'alma v los ojos' (Blecua, ed.,

as in n. 1, no. 278); 'Faltar pudo su patria al grande
Osuna' (ibid., no. 223); 'Mereciste reinar, y mereciste'
(ibid., no. 238); and 'Entre las coronadas sombras mias'
(ibid., no. 239).
83. 'La hora irrevocable que dio, Ilora; / preven la
que ha de dar; y la que cuentas, / l6grala bien.' (Blecua,
ed., as in n. 1, no. 140, 11.26-8.)

152

HILAIRE KALLENDORF AND CRAIG KALLENDORF

be coupled with Statius's 'Psittacus Atedii Melioris', about the dead parrot. Both poems
describe the mourning of a bird for its dead companion (Statius 11.4.16-23; Quevedo
no. 1, 11.1-44); and both associate specific classical gods with specific birds-Statius mentioned the birds of Apollo (1. 17) andJuno (1. 26), while Quevedo associates his loving
turtledove with Cupid, the god of love (11.23-6). The second loosely connected pair of
poems are also epicediafor dead animals. This time Quevedo read Statius's epicedionfor a
tame lion (Silvae, II.v) and wrote a similar lamentation for a wild boar (no. 29). In both
cases, the once-fierce animal attains greater honour in death than it ever had in life, by the
response of a powerful ruler to its demise. In Statius's poem, Emperor Domitian reacts to
the lion's death by wiping away a tear (1. 30o); in Quevedo's, it is the princess Dofia Maria
who both kills the boar (11.55-77) and reacts to its death (11.78-102). In addition, there
is a precise reminiscence of Statius's poem in Quevedo's reference to Caesar (11.46-8),
the title used by Statius to refer to Emperor Domitian.
The third pair of poems are panegyrics, both written in celebration of great military
leaders. Just as Statius praises Domitian after his campaign in Germany in his 'Septimus
Decimus Consulatus Imp. Aug. Germanici', so Quevedo praises the Duke of Pastrana after
his naval victory over the Turks, in his 'Esclarecidas sefias da Fortuna'. Both poems begin
in the same way: heavenly bodies are said to fall prostrate at the leader's feet, eclipsed by
his greatness (Statius Iv. 1.3-4; Quevedo no. 31, 11.4-6). The fourth pair of poems were
written about a lock of hair which was to be cut off. In the case of Statius, it became a gift
sent willingly in a golden box by Flavius Earinus to the temple of Asclepius at Pergamum;
his 'Capilli Flavi Earini' is therefore an anathematikon,a record of a voluntary act of dedication. In Quevedo's '4C6mo pudiera ser hecho piadoso', the hair was to be cut off against
a lady's will by order of her doctor during a period of illness. In both poems the beauty
of the hair is described in some detail (Statius 111.4.8-1 1, 90-2; Quevedo no. 34, 11.49-

6o).
The fifth pair of poems are two more epicedia.Both were written on the occasion of
the death of a young noble woman. Quevedo's silva entitled 'Epicedio en la muerte de una
ilustre sefiora, hermosa y difunta en lo florido de su edad' (no. 35) resembles Statius's
'Epicedion in Priscillam' by virtue of the contests, appearing in both poems, involving
gods or entities such as Death, Fortune, Envy, Love, Nature and Heaven. In Statius's poem,
Priscilla's husband struggles with Death (Silvae, v. 1.7-9); and Fortune and Envy are at war
with each other (v.1.137-53).

In Quevedo's

poem, Elvira contends

first with Death (no.

35, 11.27-38) and then with Love (11.39-41); and Nature and Heaven fight one another
over her (11.21-6). Finally, both women are in some way immortalised: Priscilla through
works of art made in her image; and Elvira through what she leaves behind-the ashes of
her beautiful body, which Quevedo calls 'Love's empire' and the arms and ammunition
of its war84 (Statius v. 1.228-38;

Quevedo no. 35, 11.6-7).

We can now move on to four pairs of poems which bear the signs of much closer
imitation by Quevedo of his classical model, at times to the extent of direct verbal and
structural parallels. Perhaps the clearest and most direct example in this category, Statius's
84. 'el imperio de Amor en poca tierra, / la munici6n,
las armas de su guerra' (Blecua, ed., no. 278, 11.6-7).

QUEVEDOAND STATIUS

153

'Somnus' (Silvae, v.4) and Quevedo's 'El suefio' (no. 5, beginning 'iCon que culpa tan
grave'), comprise the only such pair to have been studied carefully together.85 Apart from
the obvious similarity of their titles, these two poems manifest the same basic rhetorical
structure: a complaint by the insomniac poet; then a description of nightfall and its stillness; and finally a contrast between the poet and other people experiencing this night.
Quevedo follows Statius closely, even imitating his alliterative style (Statius 1. 1, 'Crimine
quo'; Quevedo 1. 1, 'Con que culpa', 'for what crime') and translating his words literally
(Statius 1. 1, 'merui'; Quevedo

1. 3, 'pude ... merecerte',

'have I deserved').

Quevedo's

poem is longer than that of Statius, but the added length unfolds within a close imitation
of 'Somnus': Quevedo takes a key word from Statius and embellishes it with one or more
synonyms: he specifies, for example, the gifts of sleep (11.39-45) to which Statius had
alluded in a more general way. Quevedo takes advantage of the dual meanings inherent
in some of Statius's cleverly chosen words; for instance, 'lumen' (Statius 11. 11, 17) can
mean 'light' as well as 'eye'; and Quevedo incorporates both of these meanings into his
phrases '[L]uz enferma' (1. 2o, 'sick light') and 'mis dos ojos ... nacieron antes para llorar
que para verte, suefio' (11. 16-17,

'my two eyes ... were born more to cry than to see you,

sleep'). He repeats Statius's image of a quiet sea and, like him, contrasts it with the wailing
of the insomniac poet (Statius 11.5-10; Quevedo 11.30, 37). Even an instance in which
Quevedo appears to depart from Statius, when he characterises Sleep more as an attractive
lover (1. 51) than as the somewhat aloof god of antiquity, can be linked to a cue from the
Roman poet, for Statius had created the image of a lover in bed with his lady who, unlike
him, does not wish for sleep (Statius 11.14-15; Quevedo 1. 74). Quevedo's poem has been
criticised, however, for repeating some topoi from Statius more as residual ornament
than as heartfelt feeling.86 Our own view is that, in the end, Quevedo followed Statius too
slavishly in his 'El suefio', instead of trusting his own poetic instincts. Nevertheless, this
pair of poems shows us how closely Quevedo was capable of imitating Statius when he
chose to do so.
The second pairing of poems which closely resemble each other consists of an
imitation by Quevedo of two ekphrasesof villas by Statius. One of the villas belonged to
Manilius Vopiscus (Silvae, 1.3), the other to Pollius Felix and his wife (Silvae,11.2). Quevedo
wrote a similar ekphrasisof a country home, the casa de campobuilt by Gonzalo Chac6n at
least partly for the recreational use of the royal couple Ferdinand and Isabella (no. 3o,
beginning 'Este de los demais sitios Narciso'). He annotated both of Statius's poems extensively in his Aldine edition of the Silvae; and he drew elements from both into his
close imitation. In Statius's first villa poem Quevedo marked off several passages, then
converted them into descriptions of the temperate climate, the melodious stream and the
orchard (Statius 1.3.1-8,

30). He also appro(Statius 1.3.1o, 2o,

loo; Quevedo no. 3o, 11.77, 40, 14). From 'Villa Surrentina Pollii Felicis' Quevedo chose
20-g, 81-2; Quevedo

no. 30, 11. 20-5,

42-4,

priated specific references to Venus, Cupid and Hercules/Alcides

85. See Crosby and Schwartz (as in n. 7). Their exhaustive efforts could hardly be improved upon; we
shall simply summarise some of their findings in an
effort to highlight the similarities between the two
poems. B. Windau, Somnus: Neolateinische Dichtung an

und iiber den Schlaf. Studien zur Motivik, Texte, Ubersetzung, Kommentar, Trier 1998, esp. p. 79, shows that
poems on sleep proliferated in Neo-Latin literature,
with many of them based on Statius's model.
86. Crosby and Schwartz (as in n. 7), pp. 11i1-26.

HILAIRE KALLENDORF AND CRAIG KALLENDORF

154

mostly different elements,87 but ones which are just as important for the development of
his own silva. This second Roman villa is inhabited by a noble couple, and Quevedo drew
on Statius's description of their happy marriage for his account of the union of Ferdinand
and Isabella. In both poems, there are separate passages about the wife and her qualities
(Statius 11.2.143-54;88 Quevedo no. 3o, 11.99-1oo),

and an emphasis on lineage or heredi-

tary nobility (Statius 11.145-6; Quevedo 1. too). Finally, Quevedo took over from Statius
the prediction that the state of peacefulness described in the poems will endure until 'the
last day'. In both cases, the focus is on steadfastness, security and the peacefulness of
repose. The 'suprema dies' of Statius (1. 128), however, refers primarily to the couple and
their union, while the 'fin del mundo' of Quevedo (1. 102) refers more to the country
home as a lasting retreat. The main bond uniting these three poems about country homes
is the notion that the inhabitants are more important than their houses. All three begin
with an extensive ekphrasisof the country retreat; but the rhetorical set passage is followed
by a detailed excursusin praise of the people who come there to rest. This concept of rest
is, perhaps, the main thrust of the poems' emotional appeal, as each of them highlights
the contrast between otium and negotium.
The third example of Quevedo's close imitation of a poem of Statius concerns two
propemptika(farewell poems) written to mark embarcation on ajourney. But while Statius's
'Propempticon Maecio Celeri' (Silvae, 111.2)was written to a person leaving on a ship for
ajourney at sea, Quevedo's '?D6nde vas ignorante navecilla' (no. 2) is addressed to the
ship itself89 There are numerous parallel passages in the two poems on the dangers of
sea travel, including specific descriptions of the winds and the waves (Statius 111.2.42-9;
Quevedo

no. 2, 11. 7-12,

25-30),

as well as some more general

musings

about what a

strange idea it is for vulnerable human beings to travel on the water (Statius 11.61-77;
Quevedo 11.13-22). Further parallels are provided by the poets' descriptions of Maecius
Celer (Statius 11.6-8) and the little ship (Quevedo 11.7-18), both of which leave firm
ground and commit themselves to the waves; and both poems include references to sea
creatures attracted by the ships (Statius 11.25-34; Quevedo 11.55-64). Finally, in both
poems irate Orion is mentioned in the same breath as a cloudy sky and stars (Statius 11.767; Quevedo 11.25-8); and both poems refer to Triton swimming around the ship (Statius
11.35-6; Quevedo 11.63-4). We may characterise Quevedo as adapting the genre of the
Statian poem-a propemptikon-to suit his own purposes, while borrowing from its content
only those passages which interested him-the ones about the ship. Quevedo's adaptation
is much more pessimistic than Statius's original, ending as it does with a shipwreck instead
of the vessel's safe return. He took the germ of disaster latent in Statius's warning to his
departing friend and transformed it into a very different sort of poem.
87. The only common
who is also mentioned in
88. There are serious
lines, including a lacuna
following the guidance

is Hercules/Alcides,
Silvae, 11.2.24.
textual problems with these
of some importance; we are
of W. R. Hardie in Classical
element

Review, xviII, 1904, pp. 156-8 (158).

89. For perhaps the best modern discussion of the
propemptikon see F. Cairns, Generic Composition in Greek
and Roman Poetry, Edinburgh 1972; Cairns provides a

clear discussion of the basic norms of this kind of

poem, using Statius's Silvae, 111.2, as a prominent example which allows Quevedo's generic transformation
to emerge clearly. Although S. T. Newmyer, The Silvae of
Statius: Structure and Theme, Leiden 1979, PP- 43-4,
rightly observes that Statius's practice regularly departed
from the generic precepts set out in rhetorical handbooks, he still finds it useful to discuss the silvae in
terms of generic expectations.

QUEVEDO AND STATIUS

155

The fourth pair of closely related poems reveals an unexpected turn on Quevedo's
part. The theme of Statius's 'Arbor Atedii Melioris' (Silvae, II.3) is obviously identical to
that of Quevedo's 'De tu peso vencido' (no. 3): a tree branch which bends all the way
down to the ground. Quevedo liked this image so much that he responded to it where it
appeared in two other Statian poems (Silvae, 1.3.82, v.2.69-70); and his imitation of 'Arbor
Atedii Melioris' reveals an impressive feat of Baroque virtuosity. Statius's poem is not very
unified. It begins with a description of the tree (11.1-7), continues with an Alexandrian
aition (explanation) of why the tree branch has this shape (11.8-61) and concludes with
a laudatio of Melior which strongly invokes Stoic themes: avoid slothful ease and unjust
power; and do not let your heart become stormy or disordered (11. 62-77). This last
section of the poem has no obvious connection with the tree, resulting in a rather clumsy
juxtaposition. Quevedo's copy of Statius shows extensive underlining of Silvae, II.3.66-9,
evidence of an interest which should not surprise us given his Neostoic preoccupations.
His solution to the problem of incorporating these Stoic sentiments into his own poem
without producing the disjunction found in his classical model was ingenious: in typical
Baroque fashion, he wrenched a striking image from its original context, invested it with
philosophical significance and pushed the symbolic resonance to its logical conclusion. In
Quevedo's poem, the tree branch not only bends down to the ground-it actually breaks
off. If Statius's Stoic injunctions are ignored, so that one's heart becomes stormy and
disordered, the branch (or symbolically, the person) will break under the weight of inappropriate or frivolous pastimes. The Stoic emphasis on leading a well-ordered life was a
favourite theme of Quevedo;90 and it is no surprise that he chose a manneristic illustration
from Statius to show the dangers of disorder.
We have suggested above that there are certain themes running through this collection of poems which lend coherence to them as a group. Most of these themes are not
only derived from Statius but are also linked to specific annotations by Quevedo in his
copy of the Latin poet's works. They fall, roughly, into two categories: those pertaining to
the natural world, and those alluding to classical mythology.
The former would be difficult to trace to any precise source were it not for Quevedo's
singling out of specific passages in his Statius. Such commonplace poetic topoi as harsh
mountain peaks and echoing birds gain new significance when viewed in the light of his
annotations. For example, the ambiguous passage about Circe discussed above, 'vitreae
iuga perfida Circes' (I.3.85), is primarily about a sharp peak. While Quevedo chose to
misread the passage fruitfully in one instance, to produce a poetic allusion to perfidious
Circe,91 in eight others he adopted the more grammatical reading when alluding to

90. Quevedo's Neostoic emphasis on the well-ordered

life may be seen in El mundo por de dentro (the fourth
SuePo): 'Es nuestro deseo siempre peregrino en las cosas
desta vida; y asf, con vana solicitud anda de unas en
otras, sin saber hallar patria ni descanso' (Obras completas, ed. Astrana Marin, 2nd edn, as in n. 3, p. 196).
Quevedo sawJob as the perfect exemplar of a man with
a well-ordered life: 'Por esto empez6 este libro diciendo
era Job var6n simple y recto y temeroso de Dios...' (La

constancia y paciencia del santo Job, ibid., p. 1193). In his

Providencia de Dios, he contrasted this balanced lifestyle
and that of the man who is given over to excess: 'No te
contentas con lo demasiado, porque no se acabe tu ambici6n. Para ti s6lo lo quieres todo, porque tu soberbia
y tu invidia sean eternas...' (ibid., p. 1252). For more
examples of this theme see Ettinghausen, Quevedo and
the Neostoic Movement (as in n. 30), pp. 126-7.
91. This example is discussed above, p. 151.

156

HILAIREKALLENDORF
AND CRAIGKALLENDORF

treacherous mountain tops (Quevedo no. 5, 1. 28; no. 10, 11.9, 23, 52; no. 15, 11.4, 34-5;
no. 18, 1. 1 1). One of his silvas (no. 15) is devoted to the perfidious peak of 'El yelmo de
Segura de la Sierra, monte muy alto al Austro', in what may be regarded as an example
of another type of borrowing we have discussed-an extended meditation throughout an
entire poem sparked by a particular image from Statius.
The motif of a bird which repeats its call as if creating its own echo appears many times
in Quevedo's poetry; and this topos too, though frequent enough in Spanish Baroque
lyrics, derives from a precise passage in Statius in which birds mourn a dead comrade.
Quevedo marked 'the partridge, that joins and reiterates the words it echoes' (Silvae,
11.4.20). He then repeated the image of the mournful, echoing bird in three different
poems, the the first of which, 'Al tronco y a la fuente' (no. 1), about the widow turtledove,
provides us with a further example of an extended meditation on a favourite image.
Quevedo re-used the figure of this echoing, mournful turtledove in 'iQue de robos han
visto del invierno' (no. 6, 11.85-90); but he returned to a closer imitation of Statius in his
'Este de los demais sitios Narciso', which contains the direct Spanish equivalent 'perdiz' of
the Latin word for partridge, 'perdix' (no. 30o, 1. 65).
Another fairly conventional natural topos running through several of the poems is the
elm embraced by the vine as a spouse is embraced by his beloved. This image can be traced
to Statius's poignant poem about a married couple, the 'Epicedion in Priscillam' (Silvae,
v. 1.48-9). It was indicated by Quevedo with a pointing hand, and subsequently appears
in three of his own silvas, with a succession of elegant variations (no. 6, 11.91-6; no. 18, 11.
67-8; no. 3o, 11. 14-15).92 Finally, next to Statius's 'Cum iam fessa dies. et in aequora
montis opaci / [Vmbra cadit:]' (Silvae, 11.2.48), Quevedo wrote in the margin: 'concerning
the defunct day'. He then repeated the image in two of his silvas (no. 14, 1. 5, 'difunto
dia' and 1. 66, 'muriendo el dia'; no. 5, 11.19-20, 'morir el dia / con luz enferma').
The other category of themes which lends coherence to the collection as a whole is
that of classical imagery. The lyre ('chelys' in Latin, 'lira' in Spanish) appears in Statius's
poem about the villa at Surrentum (11.2.60) and occurs in six different poems by Quevedo
(no. 14, 1. 65; no. 20, 1. 34; no. 22, 1. 16; no. 23, 1. 14; no. 25, 11.14, 27; no. 30, 1. 44). A
passage about the phoenix was noted by Quevedo at the end of Statius's poem about the
death of the parrot (11.4-37) and is found in two of his own poems (no. lo, 1. 148; no. 16,
11.20-2). In a passage from Statius's 'Epithalamion in Stellam et Violentillam' marked by
Quevedo, Cupid is described as having a fiery mouth (1.2.61-2); and he appears in the
context of fire in Quevedo's 'Al tronco y a la fuente' and 'iAy, c6mo en estos airboles sombrios' (no. 1, 11.23-6; no. 20, 1. 30). The Fates also appear in both collections: Quevedo
made a marginal note about them in Statius's epithalamium (1.2.24); and then introduced
them into his silvas as the 'Parcas' (no. 17, 1. 30) or 'envidiosos hados' (no. io, 1. 69).
Finally, the goddess Fortuna, called 'Reyna' or queen by Quevedo and noted three times
in the margins of his Statius (v.1.135-7, 17o-5; v.5.56-62), further helps to bind his silvas

92. 'Mira la vid que a Baco soberano / la boca regal6 y

honr6 las sienes, / c6mo sirve de grillos en el llano / a los
pies de los olmos que mantienes. / iAy, c6mo los enlaza!
iAh, si hiciese / Amor que ansi mi Aminta me cifiese!'

(Blecua, ed., as in n. i, no. 399, 11. 91-6); 'estos olmos

hermosos, / a quien esposa vid abraza y cierra' (ibid.,
no. 12, 11. 67-8); 'cuatro ilamos de Alcides, / fecundo
matrimonio de las vides' (ibid., no. 202, 11.14-15).

QUEVEDOAND STATIUS

157

together, since she is invoked in at least six different poems (no. 12, 1. 75; no. 14, 1. 27; no.
18, 1. 87; no. 20o,1. 8; no. 29, 1. 141; no. 31, 1. 1).

Using the annotations in the Princeton volume, we can now see how thoroughly Quevedo's
artistic vision in the silvas was inspired by Statius. It is his conscious decision to draw on
thematic and stylistic strands derived from the Latin poet which gives coherence to the
collection, encouraging us to read the miscellany as an artfully crafted whole. Quevedo's
nephew Pedro Aldrete was attuned to this coherence when he printed the silvas together
as a group (see Appendix ii). Modern editors, we believe, would be well advised to do the
same. In the end, of course, we shall never be able to hear most of Quevedo's conversations
with the dead. His annotations in his copy of the Silvae, however, allow us to eavesdrop on
Quevedo as he responded to Statius and began to craft his own poetry in dialogue with
his sources. Whenever such a dialogue can be recovered, we should use it as the surest
possible guide to understanding the genesis and interpretation of a literary work of art.
TexasA &M University

Appendix I
Quevedo's Annotations to Statius's Silvae
Transcribedin this table are all the annotations entered by Quevedo into the Silvaesection of his
Aldine Statius,now Princeton UniversityLibraryEx 2926.1502. Statius'spoems are given modern
titlesand line numbersto facilitatereference,but the text is quoted from the 1502 edition as Quevedo
read it: the capitalisation,punctuationand orthographyof the Aldine edition have been preserved,
although abbreviationshavebeen expanded for the sake of legibility.Wordsadjacentto the passages
which interestedQuevedo,but which are not actuallymarkedoff by him, are occasionallytranscribed
to complete the sense and enclosed withinsquarebrackets.

Title page of the Orthographia

Quevedo's

annotation

C. 1566
Don Enrriquede Villenaen el
comento a la traduccionque
hiCoa Virgilioen romancepara
el rey de nauarralibro que io
tengo en mi libreriade Manoi
es singulardice hablando
destaiio asi, e a la fin fue
cristianoconoiiendo la uerdad
Catolica.Don Franciscode
Queuedo.

158

HILAIRE KALLENDORF AND CRAIG KALLENDORF

Dedicatory epistle
Passage marked off by Quevedo

Sig.

Quevedo's annotation

IOANNI

aiv

loviano
[withpointinghand]

publicare

I.1 Equus maximus Domitiani Imp.

Sl.vae

Passagemarkedoff by Quevedo

sig.

Quevedo'sannotation

I. 1.1

gemmata

a3r

geminata

1.1.10

et caesis decreuit frondibus Ida.

a3r

.N. [=Nota]

1.1.31

blandoque uidet Concordia uultu.

a3V

Plinius liber 2. capitulum XVIII.

[correction: HistoriaNaturalis,ii.16.]

suus quidem quique color est

Saturno CandidusJoui clarus,
Marti igneus, Lucifero Candens
Vesperi refulgens, Mercurio
radians Lunae blandus.Blandus
inter colores
1.1.66

cuius sacrata Vorago

a4r

1.1.71

lucemque coruscam

a4r

I.1.93-4

a4v

de roma iactatur sic, oratius

ode XXX. carminum liber III.
[w. 8-9] crescam laude recens.
dum capitolium scandet cum
tacita uirgine pontifex et
ouidius. amorum. liber I elegia
XV. [w. 25-6] Titirus, et segetes
aeneiaque arma legentur roma
triumphati dum caput orbis erit
[The Renaissance editor Andrea Navagero
(1483-1529) proposed 'segetes' in place
of'fruges' in Ovid, Amores,1.15.25, which
may provide a clue as to which edition
Quevedo used.]

QUEVEDO AND STATIUS

159

1.2 Epithalamionin Stellamet Violentillam

Sivae

Passage marked off by Quevedo

sig.

Quevedo's annotation

1.2.14

Dissimulata deam

a5r

utitur et marcialis ex primo

epigrama I. disimulatque
deum et.
[Martial, Epigrammata, 1.1.4: 'dissimulet
Delon', with '-que deum', a variant from
early Italian printed editions. See the note
above for speculation about which edition
Quevedo may have used.]

1.2.21

a5r

thymbra
dies nuptialis aluo uelere a
parcis notatur

1.2.24

[dies] aderat parcarum conditus albo

/ [Vellere]

a5r

1.2.47

feruent agmine postes

a5v

1.2.61-2

cui plurimus ignis / Ore

a5V

1.2.130-3

Hanc si thessalicos uidisses Phoebe

per agros: / Erraret Daphne. secura in
littore Naxi / Theseum iuxta foret haec
conspecta cubile: / Gnosida desertam
profugus liquisset et Euan.

a7r

argutia mire dicta

1.2.148

Silex ... Saxa

a7r

silex et saxa preciosi lapides

uocantur

1.2.153-7

[Robora dalmatico] lucent satiata

metallo. / Excludunt radios syluis
decussa uetustis / Frigora. perspicui
uiuunt in marmore fontes. / Nec seruat
natura uices: hic Sirius alget, / Bruma

a7r-v

mire dictum et poetice de

Architectura

tepet
1.2.166

Exerce formam: et fugientibus

utere

a7v

donis.
1.2.185-7

ipsum in connubia terrae / Aethera

(cum pluuijs rarescunt nubila) soluo.
/ Sic rerum series, mundique
reuertitur aetas

a7Va8r

1.2.203-8

tumidae sic transfuga Pisae / Amnis,

in externos longe flammatus amores: /

a8r

[continued...]

mire dictum

160

Silvae

HILAIRE KALLENDORF AND CRAIG KALLENDORF

Passage marked off by Quevedo

sig.

Quevedo'sannotation

[...continued]

Flumina demerso trahit intemerata

canali. / Donec Sicanios tandem
prolatus, anhelo / Ore bibat fontes
miratur dulcia Nais / Oscula: nec
credit pelago uenisse maritum.
1.2.222

a8v

thymbra

1.2.252-5

b r

Philetas, Callimachus,
Propertius, Naso, Tibullus

1.2.263

b r

Sebetus

1.2.265

b 1r

Sarnus

sig.4

Quevedo'sannotation

biv

Tibur glaciale

[a stream at Naples]
[a river in Campania]

I.3 Villa TiburtinaManilii Vopisci

Sivae

Passagemarkedoff by Quevedo

I.3.1
1.3-5

Illum nec calido latrauit Sirius astro:

biv

1.3.23

auentes carmina somnos.

biv

1.3-47-8

uarijsque metalla / Viua modis:

labor est auri memorare figuras:

b2r

mire de escultura. et poetice. et

eleganter.

1.3-55-7

uarias ubi picta per artes / Gaudet

humus: suberantque nouis Asarota

b2r-v

argute et [... ?] de ornatu

Asarota

figuris. / Expauere gradus.

[The reference here is to the 'Unswept

Pavement', a famous mosaic floor by Sosus;
Statius is citing Pliny, Historia naturalis,
xxxvI. 184.]

1.3.82

Qui nunquam uacui prodistis in

aethera rami?

b2v

de fecunditate arborum mire

dictum

1.3.85

uitreae iuga perfida Circes,

b2v

uitreae iure Oracius et

declaratur. quid sit a Turnebo.
[Horace, Carmina, 1.17.20: 'Penelopen
vitreamque Circen'. The same adjective
[continued...]

QUEVEDO AND STATIUS

S ilva7e

Passage marked off by Quevedo

Sig.

161

Quevedo's annotation
[...continued]
appears in 1. 73 of the poem: 'uitreasque
natatu'. Quevedo's reference is to the
commentary of Adrien Turnabe (151265), professor of Greek at Toulouse and
at the Collkge Royal. Turnebe's commentary on the word vitreamin his Paris
1604 edition of Horace, p. 64, reads: 'vel
splendidam instar vitri, & ita formosam:
vel pellucidem, quales ab Epicuro Deos
inductos esse scribit M<arcus> Tull<ius>
de divin<atione> 2 ...'

I.4 Soteria Rutili Gallici

Si'lvae

Passage marked off by QuevedoSig.

1.4-36-7

[Nec] ... / Sperne coli tenuiore

lyra vaga cingitur astris / Luna: et
in oceanum riui cecidere minores.

b4r

1.4.66

Nam neque plebeiam aut dextro sub

numine cretam / [servo animam:]

b4v

Qvedo

nota

11.2 Villa SurrentinaPollii Felicis

marked
offbyQuevedo sig. Quevedo's
Silvae Passage
annotation
Cum iam fessa dies. et in aequora
montis opaci / [Vmbra cadit:]

c5v

11.2.52

His fauit Natura locis. hic uicta, colenti

c5V

11.2.60

uatis manus: et chelys una

c6r

11.2.66-7

quod ab arte Myronis: / Aut Polycletaeo

iussum est quod uiuere coelo:

c6r

11.2.76

Haec uidet Inarimen. illi Prochyta

aspera paret.

c6r

II.2.48

de occidua die

HILAIRE KALLENDORF AND CRAIG KALLENDORF

162

II. 3 Arbor Atedii Melioris

Silvae

s ................ annotation
.......
..................
by Quevedo
Passage
..marked
off @
............................
od annota
:, Sig. Quevedo's

11.3.11

improba

c7v

11.3.41

uiuamque aggessit

c8r

11.3.66-9

Cui nec pigra quies: nec iniqua potentia:

nec spes / Improba: sed medius per
honesta, et dulcia limes / Incorrupte
fidem: nullosque experte tumultus: / Et
secrete palam, qui digeris ordine uitam:

c8v

II.4

riuulam ages

Psittacus Atedii Melioris

of

marked

Quevedo's

Silvae

Passage

11.4.20

Quique refert iungens iterata uocabula

Perdix

dir

senio nec fessus inerti / Scandet

odoratos Phoenix felicior ignes.

dlv

11.4-36-7

Quevedo

by

sig.

annotation

1.5 Leo mansuetus

annotation
Quevedo's

offbyQuevedoSig.
marked
Silvae Passage
11.5.15

totas duxere in lumina frontes.

d2r

111.3 Consolatio ad Claudium Etruscum

of

marked

Sig.IQuevedo's

annotation

Silvae

Passage

111.3.19-20

animaeque supremum / Frigus amat:

e4v

[at top of page]

e5r

opponuntur

sig.

Quevedo'sannotation

by

Quevedo

haec signa .69.

Iv.6 HerculesepitrapeziosNovi Vindicis

Silvae ~~Passage
IV.6.21

arkedoff byQuevedo

Atque locuturas mentito corpore Caeras

g4V

QUEVEDO AND STATIUS

163

v.i Epicedionin Priscillam

vqe
v. 1.9

Passage marked off by Quevedo

sig.

Quevedo's annotation

inque omni te quaerit amare metallo

hiV

lege in omni te querit animare

metalo / dixit supra animare
figuris
[Cf. Statius, Silvae, v.1.: 'Aut ebur,
impressis Aurumve ani<m>are figuris'.]

v.1.48-53

Qualiter aequaeuo

sociatam palmite

h2r

[drawing:pointinghand]

uitem / Vlmus amat: miscetque nemus:

ditemque precatur / Autumnum: et
caris gaudet redimita racemis. /
Laudentur Proauis: seu pulchrae
munere formae, / Quae morum caruere
bonis, falsoque potentes / Laudis egent
uerae. tibi quanquam et origo niteret:
v.1.67-70

Illa uel armiferas pro coniuge laeta

cateruas, / Fulmineosque ignes,
medijque pericula ponti, / Exciperet.
melius quodnon aduersa probarunt /
Quae tibi cura tori: quantus pro
coniuge pallor?

h2v

v.1.123

sabino

h3V

ex Horatio ubi laudat rusticam

vitam
[The reference is to Horace's Sabine
farm, the inspiration for some of his
finest writing, and specifically to the
famous Satires,11.6, his contrast between
country and city life.]

v.-1.135[137]

Hactenus alma Chelys. tempus nunc

ponere frondes / Phoebe, tuas:
moestaque comam damnare Cupresso.
/ Quis nam impacata consanguinitate
ligauit / [Fortunam, Inuidiamque
Deus?]

h3V

Reyna

v.1.152

igne malo:

h4r

ignis malus fulmen uocatur

v. 1. 170-5

Iamque cadunt uultus: oculisque

nouissimus horror: / Obtusaeque aures.
nisi cum uox sola mariti / Noscitur.
illum unum media de morte reuersa /

h4r

Reyna

[continued...]

HILAIRE KALLENDORF AND CRAIG KALLENDORF

164

Silvae

Passage marked off by QuevedoSig

Qeveds

tation

[...continued]

Mens uidet. illum aegris circundat

fortiter ulnis / Immotas obuersa genas.
nec sole supremo / Lumina: sed dulci
mauult satiare marito.
v.1.176

unanimum

h4r

exanimem diuina imprecacio

v.1.195

non

h4V

Non [... ]

v.1.2o8

et maior amor: quis carmine digno

h4v

[ ...?] in pietatem laus qua vivat

v.2 Laudes Crispini VettiBolanifilii

Quevedo's annotation

Silvae

Passage marked off by QuevedoISig.

V.2.7

[ab altis] Rupibus: atque oculis longo

querar aere uinci.

h6r

mire dictum de uisu

v.2.21-7

Romulei qualis per iugera Circi, / Cum

pulcher uisu, titulis generosus auitis /
Expectatur equus: cuius de Stemmate
longo / Felix demeritos habet admissura
parentes: / Illum omnes acuunt plausus,
illum ipse uolantem /Puluis: et incuruae
gaudent agnoscere metae: / Sic te Clare
puer, genitum sibi curia sensit.

h6r

Pulcra comparatio

h6V

Corbulo.

v.2.35

[Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo, a military

leader under Nero.]

v.2.62-4

non dum ualidae tibi signa iuuentae /

Irrepsere genis, et adhuc decor integer
aeui. / Nec genitor iuxta. fatis nanque
haustus iniquis

h6V

v.2.69-7o

Libertas properata togae? ceu nescia

falcis / Sylua comas tollit: fructumque
expirat in umbras.

h7r

v.2.80

atque omnes uultu placare nouercas?

h7r

admira stacii ingenium

QUEVEDO AND STATIUS

165

v.3 Epicedionin patremsuum

S.i

ae

marked
offby
PassageQuevedos.-FQ-evedo'sannotation

v.3-50-1

et magno tumulum praetexere luco: /

Illic et Siculi superassem dona sepulcri:

ilv

v.3-77

supremo

i2r

supremus

v.3.120

nobile

i2V

mobile

v.3.153-8

Obsitus: et tetricis Alcman cantatus

Amyclis: / Stesichorusque ferox:
saltusque ingressa uiriles / Non
formidata temeraria Leucade Sappho:
/ Quosque alios dignata chelys. tu
pandere doctus / Carmina Battiadae,
latebrasque Lycophronis atri: /
Sophronaque implicitum, tenuisque
arcana Corinnae.

i3v

Poetae delos

i4r

Phoenix Achillis

v.3.192
v.3.261

Explicuit: falsoque tulit sub tartara

somno.

i5r

Febre somno id est morte

v.3.287

In quo falsa dies:

i5V

falsa dies

v.5 Epicedionin puerum suum

Sivae
marked
offby
assage
sig. Queveds
Psamnnotationk
a
.....i.......n
v.5.22

et te Natura pudebit.

i6V

aduerte

v.5-56-62

Non tacuit. nimius fortasse, auidusque

doloris / Dicor. et in lachrymis iustum
excessisse pudorem. / Quis nam autem
gemitus, lamentaque nostra reprendit?
/ O nimium felix, nimium crudelis, et
expers / Imperij fortuna tui: qui dicere
legem / Fletibus: aut fines audet
censere dolendi. / Incitat (heu)
planctus. potius fugientes ripas /
[Flumina devincas]

i7r

Reyna

HILAIRE KALLENDORF AND CRAIG KALLENDORF

166

Appendix ii
List of Quevedo's
No. (Blecua)
1

Silvas

First line of poem

Eary editions

(383)
(138)

Al tronco ya la fuente
?D6nde vas, ignorante navecilla

NM TM PE
NM TM

(201)

De tu peso vencido

NM

(400)

Aqui la vez postrera

?Con que culpa tan grave
iQu6 de robos han visto del invierno
Diste credito a un pino
?Qu6 tienes que contar, reloj molesto
recibes
iQue alegre que
Esta que miras grande Roma agora
En caircel de metal, loh atrevimiento!
Estas que ves aqui, pobres y escuras
Esta que veis delante
A vosotras, estrellas
O sea que olvidado
Yace pintado amante
Ti, si en cuerpo pequefio
1Oh, ti, que, inadvertido, peregrinas
Voyme por altos montes paso a paso
iAy, c6mo en estos airboles sombrios
Pues reinando en tus ojos gloria y vida
iOh vos, troncos, anciana compaiifa
iOh Floris, quien pudiera
iOh, ti, del cielo para mi venida
El instrumento artifice de muros
El metal animado
Este polvo sin sosiego
EVes,Floro, que prestando la Arism6tica
blas6n de los bosques
Tti,
Este de los demais sitios Narciso
Esclarecidas sefias da Fortuna
Muere porque le mires
Tiempo, que todo lo mudas
?C6mo pudiera ser hecho piadoso
Deja l'alma y los ojos
Deja la procesi6n, sibete al paso

NM
NM
NM
NM
NM
NM
NM
NM
NM
NM
NM
NM
NM
NM
NM
NM
NM
NM
NM
NM
NM

4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

13

14
15

16
17
18
19
20

21
22

(398)
(399)
(136)
(139)

(203)
(137)
(144)
(142)
(135)
(401)
(402)
(2oo)
(205)
(12)
(509)
(510)
(508)
(390)

23
24
25
26

(403)

27
28

(420)
(141)
(204)
(202)
(236)
(404)
(422)
(385)
(278)
(147)

29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36

(143)
(291)
(140)

Date
1613-16

SP

TM

TM
TM
TM
TM
TM
TM
TM
TM
TM
TM
TM
TM
TM
TM
TM
TM
TM
TM
TM
TM
TM
NMt TM
TM
TM
TM
TM
TM
TM
TM
TM
TM
TM
TM

pre-1611
1603-8

SP
SP
SP
SP
SP

PE

PE
PE
PE
PE

PE
PE
PE
PE

1613-16
pre-1611
1603-8
pre-1611
pre-1611
pre-1611
1613-16
1613-16
1613-16
1613-16
1613-16
1613-16
1613-16
1613-16
1613-16
1613-16
1613-16
1613-16
1613-16
1613-16
1613-16
1613-16

1625
post-1623
1623

?1611

NM = Naples, Biblioteca Nazionale MS XIV.E.46.

TM = Las tres musas ultimas castellanas,ed. Pedro Aldrete, Madrid 1670. (We have used 'TM' to designate all
except one of the poems whose first lines appear in the 'Indice intercalado', regardless of whether or not the

poems themselvesactuallyappearin Aldrete'sedition.See above,n. 78.)

PE = ElParnaso espafiol,ed.Jusepe Antonio Gonzdilezde Salas, Madrid 1648.
SP = Segundapartede lasflores ilustres,ed. Juan Antonio Calder6n [dedication signed 1611 ], Seville 1896.

QUEVEDO AND STATIUS

167

Appendix III
Silvas of Quevedo
No. (Blecua)
1

(383)

Linked to Poems of Statius as Pairs

Quevedo's silva

Poem of Statius

Theme

Al tronco y a la
fuente

11.4 Psittacus Atedii

a bird that dies

Melioris

(138)

jD6nde vas
ignorante navecilla

III.2

(201)

De tu peso vencido

11.3 Arbor Atedii Melioris

(398)

jConqu6 culpa tan

grave

v.4

29

(204)

blas6n de los
Tfi,
bosques

30

(202)

Este de los demais

sitios Narciso

1.5

I.3
11.2

Propempticon Maecio
Celeri

farewell to one departing

on ajourney
tree bending down to
the water

Somnus

sleep

Leo mansuetus

death of a large, fierce

animal

Villa Tiburtina Manilii

country home

Vopisci
Villa Surrentina Pollii
Felicis

country home

31

(236)

Esclarecidas sefias
da Fortuna

Iv.1 Septimus Decimus

Consulatus Imp. Aug.
Germanici

homage to a ruler

34

(385)

?C6mo pudiera ser

hecho piadoso

Flavi Earini
1II.4 Capilli

lock of hair that must

be cut off

35

(278)

Deja l'alma y los

ojos

v. 1 Epicedion in Priscillam

death of a noble woman

Notes to Appendices

II and III

For considerations relating to the selection and order assigned to the poems listed in Appendix ii see
above, p. 149. For ease in cross-referencing, the numbers used in the most recent modern edition
(Blecua 1996, cited above n. 1) are given in parentheses after the number of each poem in our own
sequence. For the dates given in Appendix ii we have relied upon Pablo Jauralde Pou's article 'Las
silvas de Quevedo' (as in n. 6, pp. 176-9). The table also indicates which of the silvas appeared in
Quevedo's early autograph manuscript (NM); in Pedro Aldrete's 'Indice intercalado' (TM); and in
two early collections in which Quevedo's poetry was included-although only a few of the silvas were
labelled as such-El Parnaso espafiol(PE) and Segvndaparte de lasflores ilvstres(SP).
Appendix iii uses the same system of numbering as Appendix ii. Poems of Statius are identified by
number and title, according to modern convention.

t (see Appendix ii, no. 25). This is the only poem that is described by Blecua as found in the Naples
manuscript but which was not subsequently transcribed by Ettinghausen, who indicated that one

168

HILAIRE KALLENDORF AND CRAIG KALLENDORF

poem was missing, but that he did not know which it was. See Blecua, ed. (as in n. 5), 1, p. 483; and
Ettinghausen,

'Un nuevo manuscrito'

(as in n. 14), p. 222 n. 10. Our own examination

of the manu-

script confirms that 'El instrumento artifice de muros' is absent from it. We have also learned that
the manuscript underwent preservation work in 1961. It may be that the now missing poem became
lost in the process of that work, and between the times when the manuscript was examined by Blecua
and Ettinghausen.