Gómez Manrique

• Born: c. 1412
• Birthplace: Amusco, Tierra de Campos, Spain
• Died: c. 1490
• Place of death: Toledo, Spain

Other Literary Forms

During his lifetime, Gómez Manrique was known simply as a poet, the word “dramatist” having little or no relevance in fifteenth century Spain. His cancionero consists of 108 compositions conserved in manuscript form through the efforts of his good friend, Don Rodrigo Pimental, the count of Benavente. In addition to the courtly love poetry typical of his generation, his most famous works are moral treatises and elegies clearly within the tradition of Juan de Mena and Iñigo Lopez de Mendoza, marqués de Santillana. In fact, the great Spanish critic Marcelino Menéndez y Pelayo was of the opinion that Manrique was the third best poet of his time after Santillana and Mena.

His best work is undoubtedly Coplas para el Señor Diego Arias de Ávila. Dedicated to one of the favorites of Henry IV of Spain, it is both an elegy and an impassioned plea for the judicious and moderate use of power by one who had been injured by its abuse. In its lyricism and careful elaboration of the Ubi Sunt theme, it is clear that it served as a model for its more famous counterpart, Las coplas que fizo para la muerte de su padre, written by his nephew and admirer, Jorge Manrique.

Achievements

To Gómez Manrique belongs the honor of being the first known dramatist in the Spanish language. There has been much speculation about the origins of the Spanish theater, but aside from a few Latin religious plays and a fragment of the Auto de los reyes magos of the twelfth century, little or nothing is known about the early Spanish theater until Manrique’s Representación del nacimiento de Nuestro Señor. Much has been surmised, however, from the scanty evidence, and Representación del nacimiento de Nuestro Señor has become one of the focal points in a growing controversy. Many critics have pointed to it as evidence for the existence of at least a flourishing religious medieval theater. In this theory, Manrique’s work is only the last link in a chain, most of whose other links have unfortunately been lost. Others such as A. D. Deyermond deny such a relationship and insist that Representación del nacimiento de Nuestro Señor must stand alone and cannot be attached so arbitrarily to any dramatic tradition. Nevertheless, one fact remains unchallenged. Representación del nacimiento de Nuestro Señor is a real play and was designed for a real audience and was almost certainly performed.

As more facts concerning the daily life of early Renaissance Spain have come to light, attention has shifted to Manrique’s other religious work, Lamentaciones hechas para la Semana Santa. Given the static nature of Lamentaciones hechas para la Semana Santa, scholars always had assumed that it was never intended for performance, but now some evidence seems to indicate that brief religious dramatic works were performed as part of the ceremonial processions of Holy Week, much like the much more elaborate autos sacramentales of the following decades. Manrique, corregidor of Toledo and in charge of all civic demonstrations in a city famous for its religious spectacles, could have written Lamentaciones hechas para la Semana Santa essentially for its performance through the streets and plazas of Toledo on Good Friday.

Biography

Little is known of the life of Gómez Manrique; even the year of his birth is uncertain. His family was a prominent one: The Manriques were proud of the fact that they were men of both “armas y letras,” and the artistic endeavors of the Manrique family itself constitute a brief summary of the literary life of late medieval and early Renaissance Spain.

Manrique’s uncle and mentor Iñigo López de Mendoza, marqués de Santillana, following a family tradition, was famous for his serranillas as well as his didactic and allegorical decires. Always an innovator, he prematurely tried to introduce the Italian sonnet into Spain and can be considered the first Spanish literary critic. His Carta to Dom Pedro (1449) essentially deals with the nature of poetry but also gives a critical overview of European and Spanish poetry. His nephew Jorge Manrique, for whom Gómez himself served as teacher and role model, immortalized his father, Rodrigo Manrique, the maestre of Santiago, and himself in the aforementioned Las coplas que fizo para la muerte de su padre. Gómez Manrique, in addition to writing poetry and drama, was one of the foremost orators of his day, an art that he freely and openly used to further the political ends of his family. If in the twentieth century, the name Manrique calls to mind literary associations, in the fifteenth, it meant only one thing—power. The Manriques were the most powerful warlords of their time. With their participation, kings and queens were made and broken. In a distinct departure from the prevailing practice of the century, however, they were also known for their honor, and they were men of their word. Gómez himself was often called on to act as witness or arbitrator in important legal and political decisions.

Although much about the life of Gómez Manrique remains uncertain, the chronicles of his time are full of his exploits, which have the flavor of a chivalric novel. Deploring the inept rule of John II, he became the sworn enemy of Don Álvaro de Luna, the king’s favorite, whom he fought and eventually helped depose. Later he turned against Henry IV, John’s son, and allied his family to the cause of the young prince Don Alfonso and eventually to that of his sister, the infanta Isabel. In fact, his one dramatic work of which the exact date of performance is known, the Momos de doña Isabel para su hermano don Alfonso, was written at the request of the princess to honor her younger brother Alfonso on the occasion of his fourteenth birthday. It is a bittersweet little work whose exuberance is marred by the fact that the young boy would never live to celebrate another birthday. Later, Manrique would also be the man chosen to stage and direct another “political” drama; the escorting and protecting of the disguised Ferdinand of Aragon on his journey to Castile to marry Isabel against the wishes of her brother, the king. Henry, enraged by the marriage, declared his daughter Juana as his legitimate heir and Isabel to be the usurper, and again there was civil war.

During this war, Manrique, acting as knight-champion of Castile, was chosen by Ferdinand to challenge the king of Portugal to combat in the name of all Spain when the latter refused to acknowledge Isabel’s right to the throne. Also, Manrique, as the military governor of Toledo, saved that pivotal city for Isabel not only by his military prowess but also by the force of his powerful oratory. Realizing that because of the disaffection of the nobility and the archbishop, the city was in great danger of being lost, Manrique, standing alone in the great square, pleaded with his fellow citizens to remember their oaths and their duty to the city they loved. He carried the day and later used his experiences in Toledo to write one of his more important poems, traditionally called Coplas de mal qobierno de Toledo, but whose true title is Exclamación y querella de la gobernación.

Manrique died in Toledo around 1490. He had lived through and participated in most of the important events of his time. He continued to deprecate his literary endeavors, telling friends that although he had learned the art of warfare from his brother, Don Rodrigo, he had never had any formal literary training and considered himself only a scribbler. It was only the pressure of his friends that forced him to duplicate his manuscripts, although what has been lost and what saved will never be known.

Analysis

Although Gómez Manrique is the first known Spanish dramatist, he does not have the distinction of being the “father” of Spanish theater. That honor belongs to Juan del Encina. Manrique brought the theater one step closer to its glory of the Golden Age, however, and his contributions to Spanish literature were not only important but also beautiful.

Momos al nacimiento de un sobrino suyo

Manrique owes his fame as the first-known Spanish dramatist to four brief works with dramatic possibilities. Of the four, the least known is the Momos al nacimiento de un sobrino suyo. The momos, or mumming was a very popular entertainment in the palaces and great houses of the fifteenth century. It was a mixture of dancing, singing, poetic recitation, and gift giving, whose only requirement was that the mummers had to be disguised.

One type of momos, generally associated with a baptism or a birthday, was the hados in which the person honored was endowed with great gifts by various supernatural, allegorical, or mythological beings. In Momos al nacimiento de un sobrino suyo, the mummers grant to Manrique’s nephew the virtues they are dressed to represent: justice, prudence, temperance, fortitude, faith, hope, and charity.

Momos de doña Isabel para su hermano don Alfonso

If the least is known about Momos al nacimiento de un sobrino suyo, the most is known about the Momos de doña Isabel para su hermano don Alfonso, because Isabel, the young instigator of the work, was later to become the great queen of Spain, and Don Alfonso, her brother, was the boy who had been proclaimed king in a rebellion directed in great part by the Manriques only two years before. It is definitely known that the work was performed in 1467, and the names of mummers are known. Even the time of its performance, in the evening, after supper, is recorded in the Castilian court annals. The Momos de doña Isabel para su hermano don Alfonso opens with Isabel, covered with tufts of fur, giving a rather flowery discourse on the reason for the disguise. She informs the prince that she and her eight sister “muses” have come by mysterious devices from their home in the sacred mountain of Helicon to offer him their greatest “hados.” Her eight ladies-in-waiting, dressed copiously in feathers, now appear to musical accompaniment. They dance around the prince offering him his heart’s desires. He will be a great warrior, he will be lucky in love, and finally, Isabel wishes him greatness not only in this life but also after death. The Momos de doña Isabel para su hermano don Alfonso, a happy prophecy for a lad from whom much is expected, from all accounts was a great success, but read today it has tragic undertones. The last words of the play that deal with death are prophetic irony. Within a few months, Alfonso would be dead. The “muses” were wrong. They could not see the future.

Lamentaciones hechas para la Semana Santa

Lamentaciones hechas para la Semana Santa is a completely lyric work. There is no real evidence, although there are suggestions, that it was ever performed. “Performed” in this case means chanted or sung, because there is no action in this work. It is simply a tragic llanto, a lament, a secular imitation of the Planctus Mariae with three characters, the Virgin Mary, Saint John, and Mary Magdalene, who never speaks. It is a moving and beautifully written work, whose repeated refrain, “¡Ay dolor!” echoes like a throbbing heartbeat. It demonstrates to great effect the poetic skill of Manrique, but it is not theater, at least not in the form in which it has come down.

Representación del nacimiento de Nuestro Señor

Representación del nacimiento de Nuestro Señor is theater. Manrique composed it at the request of his sister, who was the assistant mother superior at the monastery of Calabozanos, where it was almost certainly performed. Representación del nacimiento de Nuestro Señor follows the story of Christ’s birth according to the Gospel of Saint Luke with the addition of some very special touches. The play begins with a doubting and very confused Joseph unsure of what or whom to believe. Joseph was often depicted as a comic figure in medieval tradition, and an angel appears and derides him, denouncing him as “el más loco de los locos.” The customary obligatory nativity scenes follow, the adoration of the child by its mother, the angel appearing to the shepherds, the shepherds coming to the stable to adore, but even in the midst of rejoicing, a warning note is sounded. Manrique wants his audience never to forget that the reason for this divine birth was a terrible mortal death. Joy is allied to sorrow in Mary’s first speech, and no Magi bearing beautiful gifts appear. Instead, robed figures, symbolizing the scenes of Christ’s Passion, present to the child the instruments of his death: the chalice, the rope with which he is tied to the pillar, the whips, the crown of thorns, the cross, and the nails and lance. The drama, a blend of liturgical tradition and momos, juxtaposes the concepts of life and death. The final scene returns to the joyous theme of birth with the nuns singing a beautiful lullaby to the Christ child. It is one of Manrique’s most beautiful poetic songs, and a fitting ending to his most ambitious dramatic work.

Bibliography

Deyermond, A. D. The Middle Ages. New York: Barnes and Noble, 1971. A study of the literary history of Spain during the period in which Manrique wrote.

Scholberg, Kenneth R. Introducción a la poesía de Gómez Manrique. Madison, Spain: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, 1984. This Spanish-language volume on Manrique’s poetry sheds light on his dramatic works.