Criticón (Jan 2012)
«Las estrañas virtudes y hazañas de los hombres». Épica y panegírico en la Égloga Segunda de Garcilaso de la Vega
Abstract
Between the spring of 1533 and that of 1534, Garcilaso composed a laudatory eclogue in which he was able to experiment with a classical genre writing a panegyric in Spanish, which is related with the model of the basilikòs lógos. In fact, the panegyric dedicated to Don Fernando, the Duque of Alba, which appears in the second part of the Égloga II, was written following the rhetorical model derived, directly or indirectly, from the treatise by the orator Menander on the discourse in praise of princes, and this is one of the earliest and more accomplished contributions to the genre in the vernacular humanistic poetry of the Renaissance. However, epic and panegyric modes share several strong connections between themselves, which can already be traced back to the origins of the panegyric genre, from Claudianus to Flavius Cresconius Corippus (3rd-6th cent.). Therefore, the ‘epic reading’ of the eclogue here undertaken allows to trace the presence in Garcilaso’s text of several elements that belong to the epic tradition, such as themes and stylistic devices. With this study I hope to contribute to shedding new light on the poetic background of the second half of Garcilaso’s eclogue, offering new ideas that will allow to understand better the generic ambiguity of the poem, which has been debated by its commentators since the 16th century to the present., from Herrera («alabanza de la casa de Alba») to Rivers («miniature epic poem»).
Keywords
