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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
Santa Barbara
Montalvo, Martorell, Cervantes and the Structure of
Romance in Renaissance Spain
A Dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the
requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
in
Hispanic Languages and Literature
by
Alison Caplan
Committee in charge:
Professor Juan Bautista Avalle-Arce, Chairperson
Professor Enrique Martinez-Lopez
Professor Harvey L. Sharrer
June 1997
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The dissertation of Alison Caplan is approved
■ Lty.y.z
£ -
A r ulc^.
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Committee Chairperson
June 1997
ii
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Acknowledgments
In preparing this thesis, I have received help from
many people all of whom were instrumental in making its
completion possible. Above all, I would like to thank the
director of my dissertation, Professor Juan Bautista
Avalle-Arce, for his unfailing support and guidance. It
was Professor Avalle-Arce who first introduced me to the
study of the Spanish romances of chivalry through a
comparative reading of Amadis de Gaula and Don Quiiote. His
insights have profoundly influenced this dissertation and
my development as a scholar. I am indebted as well to
Professors Enrique Martinez-Lopez and Harvey L. Sharrer
whose comments on my draft and warm encouragement were of
great as s istance.
I would also like to thank Padre Jaime Fernandez S.J.
(Sophia University) , the author of the Biblioqrafia del
CUiiote por unidades narrativas y material os de la novela, for
giving me the opportunity to participate in the
compilation of his bibliography and for sharing with me
his extensive knowledge of Cervantes' masterpiece and the
vast body of secondary criticism relating to it.
Professor David Boruchoff (McGill University) also
deserves my sincere thanks for the many valuable
suggestions he offered throughout the writing of this
thesis.
I am most grateful to my good friends from graduate
school, Nancy Posner, Susan and Arturo Giraldez, Isabel de
Sena, my colleagues in the Department of Modern Languages
at Providence College as well as the Caplan and Myrus
families, who were all a source of much support. Nancy,
in particular, on many occasions unselfishly took the time
to talk me through frustrating conceptual blocks and
helped to redirect my focus. I also want to express
special thanks to my parents, Carol Randolph and Robert
Caplan, who gave me much needed encouragement and
financial assistance during critical phases of the
preparation of this thesis. In addition, Hilary Caplan
served as an indispensable research aide.
I owe the greatest debt of thanks to my husband,
Richard Myrus, on whose editorial adeptness, clever turn
of phrase, and steadfast equanimity I depended. With deep
gratitude y amor, I dedicate this dissertation to him.
iii
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VITA
January 12, 1964 -- B o m -- San Diego, California
1986 -- A.B., Harvard University
1987 -- M.A., Middlebury College in Madrid
1989-91 -- Teaching Assistant, Department of Spanish and
Portuguese, University of California,
Santa Barbara
1992-present -- Instructor of Spanish, Department of
Modern Languages, Providence College
PUBLICATIONS
CXieen Isabel of Castile. Ed. David A. Boruchoff and Alison
Caplan. New Middle Ages Series. New York: Garland,
forthcoming.
"La Sierra Morena y la narrativa medieval." Actas del
Taroar Cbloqoio Internao-Lona! de la Asociacictl de
Cervantistas. Barcelona: Anthropos, 1993. 373-80.
FIEIDS OF STUDY
Major Field: Medieval and Renaissance Spanish Literature
iv
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ABSTRACT
Montalvo, Martorell, Cervantes and the Structure of
Romance in Renaissance Spain
by
Alison Caplan
The primary objective of this dissertation is to
examine the romance form that serves as the organizing
principle in flmadis fle Gaula, Tirante el Blanco, and Don Ouiiote
la Mancha. These texts, spanning the fifteenth through
the seventeenth centuries, offer fertile ground for the
study of the innovations and continuities of the romance
genre in the context of medieval and Renaissance Spain.
Particular attention is given to the narrative structure,
or design, of the works and specifically, to structural
affinities between the romances, which exist despite
obvious cultural differences in their respective time
periods and regions of origin.
Chapter I defines the parameters of the chivalric
romance paradigm and focuses the analysis on the Hispano-
Arthurian tradition in Spain. Chapter II offers a
detailed study of the providential world of the sixteenth-
century Amadis de Gaula while Chapter III concentrates on
the tenuous balance of romance and realism in Tirante el
bianco. Last, the epilogue presents multiple etxaoples of
Cervantes' indebtedness to his romance precursors.
v
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TABLE OP CONTENTS
Prologue. Objectives and Methodology 1
Chapter One. Unraveling the Tapestry: Toward a
Definition of Medieval Romance 14
I . Medieval and Renaissance Poetics 14
II. Narrative Patterns of Amplificatio 34
III. The Vogue of Medieval Romance
in Spain 58
Chapter Two. Montalvo and the Rhetoric of Exemplarity 77
I . The Truth of the Matter. The
Prologue to the Sixteenth-Century
Altadis de Oa^a 77
II. Varietas in the Sixteenth-Century
amadis de Qaiila 91
Chapter Three. Martorell and the Artifice of Heroic
Narrative 134
I . Romance and Realism in Tirante
el Blanco 134
II. The Theater of Operations and
Martorell's Structural Tactics 152
III. "Aqui comen los Caballeros, y
duermen y mueren en sue camas,
y hacen testamento antes de su
muerte:" Death of the Hero 166
Epilogue. Cervantes and the Ends of Romance 176
B ibliography. 183
VI
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1
Prologue. Objactives and Methodology
When a writer calls his work a
Romance, it need hardly be observed
that he wishes to claim a certain
latitude, both as to its fashion and
material, which he would not have
felt himself entitled to assume had
he professed to be writing a Novel.
(Nathaniel Hawthorne, The House of
Sgven Gables)
The primary objective of this dissertation is to
examine the romance form that serves as the organizing
principle in flmadis de <3aulaf Tirante el Blanco,1 and Don
Ouijote do la Mancha. ihese texts, spanning the fifteenth
through the seventeenth centuries, offer fertile ground
for the study of the innovations and continuities of the
romance genre in the context of medieval and Renaissance
Spain. Particular attention is given to the narrative
structure, or design, of the works and specifically, to
structural affinities between the romances, which exist
despite obvious cultural differences in their respective
time periods and regions of origin.
1 The 1511 CaBti.li.eua. translation, of the 1490 Catalan text ie the
version that will be analyzed in this dissertation. As often occurs
with translation, the Castilian Tirante differs from its original in
subtle yet significant ways in order to find acceptance among its
new audience. The emendations will be discussed in Chapter- Three.
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