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Chapter 17MenosprAldea.1.17

Capítulo XVI: DE QUÁNTO MEJOR CORREGIDAS SOLÍAN ESTAR LAS CORTES Y REPÚBLICAS ANTIGUAS QUE LO ESTÁN AGORA LAS NUESTRAS

The Lament of History

The author invokes a series of historical figures who mourned the fall of cities and the loss of loved ones to frame the gravity of our own times.

King Anchises lamented the destruction of proud Troy when the Greek princes destroyed it; Queen Roxana lamented her husband Darius when Alexander the Great defeated him. The prophet Jeremiah lamented the destruction of his commonwealth when it was led away captive to Babylon. King David lamented his handsome son Absalom when Joab ran him through with spears.1 Beautiful Cleopatra lamented her dear friend Mark Antony when the emperor Augustus defeated him. Compassionate Marcus Marcellus lamented the city of Syracuse when he saw it all burning.2 Crispus Sallust lamented the fall of the Roman people. Jephthah’s daughter lamented the virginity she would never enjoy and the life she was losing.3 The patriarch Jacob lamented his son Joseph as dead, and Benjamin too, who was held prisoner in Egypt.4 The great prince Demetrius mourned his father, King Antigonus, because he found him dead upon his return from Marathon.

The Contrast of Ages

The author contrasts the virtuous order of ancient civilizations with the moral decay and corruption of the present age.

Alongside these so illustrious men, it would be right to weep for the calamities of our own times, since every day we see and every day we hear so many great things come to pass that neither curious writers recorded them nor did past ages suffer them. How great the difference is between past ages and present times can be clearly known from what their chroniclers set out to write, and from what we ourselves can tell about ourselves. The philosopher Ariminus wrote of Egypt's abundance; Demophon of Arabia's fertility; Thucydides of the riches of Tyre; Asclepius of Europe's mines; Dodrilus of the praises of Greece; Leonidas of the triumphs of Thebes; Boreas of the opulence and health of Scania; Eumenides of the good government of Athens; Tesipontus of the order maintained in the houses and courts of the ancient Sicyonian kings; Pytheas of how much Socrates' disciples learned and how little they spoke; Apollonius of the abstinence and self-control observed in the academy of the divine Plato; Myronides of the little leisure and much exercise in the house of the philosopher Iarchas; Aulus Gellius of how little they ate and how much less they slept in the schools of his master Suborinus; Plutarch of the wise women of Greece and the chaste women of Rome; and Diodorus of how the people of the Balearic Islands threw their treasures into the sea to prevent foreigners from becoming greedy and to cast out faction from among themselves. Having heard what I have said and seen what I have described, I ask you, the reader: what do you think my pen should write about these times? Because if we write that there are good things and prosperities, we have to lie; and if we write the truths, people will take offense. How can we praise our age for its abundance when we see the seasons so lean and people so hungry? How can we praise our age for men illustrious in arms and learned in the sciences, when strength is used for robbery and learning for deceit?

The Anatomy of Modern Vice

A detailed critique of contemporary failures, from health and education to gluttony and greed, illustrating the hopelessness of the current state.

How can we praise our age as prosperous and healthy, when the plague has already become so familiar that it seems like a house spirit?5 How can we praise our age for how much people learn and how little they talk, when most of those in the schools learn only how to speak spite and to write verses and farces? How can we praise our age for being abstemious and continent, when hardly anyone keeps the Lenten fast or stays away from a mistress?6 How can we praise our age7 for its limited leisure and hard work, when there are more people idling and stealing in the towns than laboring and plowing in the fields?8 How can we praise our age for eating and sleeping little, when men no longer eat until they're full, but until they retch and belch?9 How can we praise our age for women who keep their chastity and loyalty, when no vice in the world is sold more cheaply than adultery? How can we praise our age for not being greedy or miserly, when people not only refuse to throw gold and silver into the waters, but even go after them as far as the Indies?10 From a vineyard so frostbitten, a tree so dry, fruit so worm-eaten, water so murky, bread so moldy, gold so fake, and an age so suspect, we shouldn't have any hope—only despair.

The Shamelessness of the Court

The author exposes the court as a place where vice is not only practiced but promoted, and where virtue is quickly forgotten.

Look at the courts of the Assyrian, Persian, Median, Macedonian, Greek, and Roman princes, and you'll find it true that our modern republics and courts commit so many vices that people in those ancient kingdoms wouldn't have known how to invent them, let alone dared to commit them.11 In those past times and golden ages, if someone was bad, he didn't dare to be so, much less to seem so; but, alas! The world has reached such a state of looseness and corruption that we might forgive them for being bad if only they weren't so shameless. Courtiers won't deny that in the morning, when they go to the palace, in the stretch between the king's dressing and hearing Mass, they set about telling one another what they gambled that night, what they gossiped about, the company they kept, the beauties they've seen, and even the courtesans they've deceived.12 As the world is new, so are its inventions; they've found new ways of speaking, gambling, banqueting, dressing, doing business, and even new ways of deceiving.13 Every year more, every month more, every day more, and even every hour more, I see the vices gaining more ground and the virtuous growing lax. If trees grew after being planted the way vices grow after being introduced, we'd have firewood to burn and fruit to eat every week, because at court, virtues have a thousand opponents and vices have two thousand promoters.14 If a virtuous work is introduced at court, it has barely arrived before it's gone—which is not the case with any vanity or frivolity, because once that takes lodging at court, the eyes that saw it come will never see it forgotten.

The Discipline of Antiquity

By citing ancient laws and judicial rigor, the author highlights the lack of justice and the prevalence of legal corruption in modern times.

The philosopher Lycurgus used his laws to forbid both foreigners from entering his republic and his own people from traveling to other lands, so that native customs wouldn't be corrupted by visiting foreigners or by citizens who went abroad. We would gladly allow every musical novelty to end, as long as no novelty remained in the republic; because the problem isn't that the vihuela has too many strings, but that the court is short on sensible men. Plutarch recounts that while he was in Rome he saw a Greek priest stoned in the Campus Martius for no more than this: that in the temple of the goddess Berecynthia he offered a sacrifice before the people not as the priests of Rome did, but with the ceremonies of Greece. Suetonius says and affirms that in the four hundred sixty-four years the temple of the Vestal Virgins lasted in Rome, only four among them were found to be bad—namely Domitia, Rhea, Albina, and Cornelia—who were publicly punished and even put into their tombs alive. If all the unchaste and wicked virgins had to be registered and punished today, I believe we'd find more of them in four years than were found back then in four hundred. Trebellius Publius says that the emperor Aurelian removed his only friend, Rogerius, from the censorship because he had eaten and danced at the wedding of his neighbor Postoria, arguing that a good judge must reserve his gravity for serious matters rather than wasting it on jests. Despite what that emperor did, we still dare to let judges dance with their feet, as long as they don't steal with their hands; because a litigant cares very little if his judge dances at a wedding, provided that he upholds justice in court afterward. Regarding the emperor Domitian, Suetonius Tranquillus also writes: "By Domitian's decree, any accuser who kept a case going for more than a year was to be punished with exile." That is to say, Emperor Domitian ordered that any litigant who prolonged a lawsuit beyond a year should be publicly banished from Rome.15 Oh! If that law had lasted until our own day and were still enforced now, I swear that the number of the banished would be far greater than the number of the lawyers.16

Read the original Latin

Lamentava el rey Anquises la destrucción de la superba Troya quando fué destruída de los príncipes de Grecia, Lamentava la reina Rosana a su marido Darío quando del magno Alexandro fué vencido. Lamentava el profeta Hieremías la destrucción de su república quando fué llevada cautiva a Babilonia. Lamentava el rey David al su hermoso hijo Absalón quando le dió de lançades Joab. Lamentava la hermosa Cleopatra al su buen amigo Marco Antonio quando fué vencido del emperador Augusto. Lamentava el piadoso Marco Marcelo a la ciudad de Siracusana quando vió que toda se ardía. Lamentava Crispo Salustio la caída del pueblo romano. Lamentava la hija del gran Gethé la virginidad que no gozaba y la vida que perdía. Lamentava el patriarca Jacob a su hijo Josef por muerto ya Benjamín que estava presso en Egypto.

Lamentava el gran príncipe Demetrio a su buen padre y rey, Antígono, porque a la vuelta de Maratona le halló muerto. Con estos tan ilustres varones razón sería de llorar las calamidades de nuestros tiempos, pues cada día vemos y cada día oymos tantas y tan grandes cosas acontescer, que ni los curiosos escritores las escrivieron ni en los siglos passados se padescieron. Quánta diferencia ay de los siglos passados a los tiempos presentes puédese claramente conoscer en lo que sus cronistas se pusieron a escrevir y en lo que nosotros de nosotros mismos podemos contar. El filósofo Arimino escrivió de la abundancia de Egypto; el filósofo Demofón escrivió de la fertilidad de Arabia; el filósofo Tucides escrivió de las riquezas de Tiro; el filósofo Asclepio escrivió de las minas de Europa; el filósofo Dódrilo escrivió de las alabanças de Grecia; el filósofo Leonidas escrivió de los triunfos de Tebas; el filósofo Bórea escrivió la opulencia y sanidad de Escancia; el filósofo Euménides escrivió la buena governación de Atenas; el filósofo Tesiponto escrivió la orden que tenían en sus casas y cortes los antiquísimos reyes Siciomios; el filósofo Piteas escrivió lo mucho que aprendían y lo poco que habla van los discípulos de Sócrates; el filósofo Apolonio escrivió la abstinencia y continencia que se guardava en la academia del divino Platón; el filósofo Mirónides escrivió el poco ocio y mucho ejercicio que avía en casa del filósofo Iarcas; el filósofo Aulo Gelio escrivió de lo poco que comían y mucho menos que dormían en las escuelas de su maestro Suborino; el filósofo Plutarco escrivió de las mugeres que uvo en Grecia sabias y de las que uvo en Roma castas; el filósofo Diodoro escrivió de cómo los de las islas Baleares echaron en la mar a todos sus tesoros, por quitar a los extraños de ser codiciosos y alançar de entre sí bandos. Oydo lo que hemos dicho y visto lo que hemos contado, pregunto agora yo al lector de esta escritura: ¿qué es lo que le paresce devría escrevir destos tiempos mi pluma? Porque si escrevimos que hay bondades y prosperidades, hemos de mentir, y si escrevimos las verdades, hanse de escandalizar. ¿Cómo loaremos a nuestro siglo de la mucha abundancia, pues vemos a los temporales tan escasos y a los hombres tan hambrientos? ¿Cómo loaremos a nuestro siglo de hombres ilustres en las armas y doctos en las sciencias, pues las fuerças se emplean en robar y las letras on engañar?

¿Cómo loaremos a nuestro siglo de próspero y sano, pues se ha hecho ya la pestilencia tan doméstica que paresce duende de casa? ¿Cómo loaremos a nuestro siglo de lo mucho que aprenden y de lo poco que hablan, pues los más de los que están en los estudios no aprenden sino a dezir malicias y a hazer coplas y farsas? ¿Cómo loaremos a nuestro siglo de abstinente y continente, pues apenas ay hombre que ayune Cuaresma y se abstenga de amiga? ¿Cómo loaremos a nuestro siglo . del poco ocio y mucho exercicio, pues son más los que huelgan y hurtan en los pueblos que no los que trabajan y aran en los campos? ¿Cómo loaremos a nuestro siglo de lo poco que come y menos que duerme, pues no comen ya los hombres hasta hartar, sino hasta revesear y regoldar? ¿Cómo loaremos a nuestro siglo de tener mugeres que guarden castidad y tengan lealtad, pues no ay vicio en el mundo que se venda más barato que es el adulterio? ¿Cómo loaremos a nuestro siglo de no ser codicióso ni avaro, pues el oro y la plata, no sólo no lo echan en las aguas, mas aun van por ello a las Indias?

De viña tan helada, de árbol tan seco, de fruta tan gusanienta, de agua tan turbia, de pan tan mohoso, de oro tan falso y de siglo tan sospechoso no hemos de esperar sino desesperar.

Véanse las cortes de los príncipes asirios, persas, medos, macedonios, griegos y romanos, y hallarse ha por verdad que en nuestras repúblicas y cortes se cometen tales y tantos vicios, que en aquellos antiguos reinos ni los supieron ordenar ni los Ossaran cometer. En aquellos tiempos passados y en aquellos siglos dorados, en caso de ser uno malo, ni lo ossava ser, ni mucho menos parescer; mas, ¡ay dolor! , que es venido ya el mundo a tanta disolución y corrupción, que les perdonaríamos el ser malos si no fuessen desvergonçados. No me negarán los cortesanos que a la mañana, quando van a palacio, en el espacio que ay del rey se vestir hasta oyr missa, no se pongan a contar unos a otros lo que aquella noche han jugado, lo que han murmurado, las compañías que han tenido, las hermosas que han visto y aun las cortesanas que han engañado. Como es el mundo nuevo, assí son las invenciones nuevas, y las novedades que hen hallado son un nuevo hablar, un nuevo jugar, un nuevo banquetear, un nuevo vestir, un nuevo negociar y aun un nuevo engañar. Cada año más, cada mes más, cada día más y aun cada hora más, veo que ganan más tierra los vicios y se relaxan los virtuosos. Si como crescen los vicios después que se introducen cresciesen los árboles después que se plantan, cada semana habría leña que quemar y fruta que comer, porque en la corte tienen las virtudes mil contraditores y los vicios dos mil factores. Si en la corte se introduze una obra virtuosa, aun no es llegada quando es desaparecida, lo qual no es assí en alguna vanidad o liviandad, porque si una vez en la corte toma posada, ojos que la vieron venir no la verán olvidar.

El filósofo Ligurguio prohibió en sus leyes el entrar peregrinos en su república y el peregrinar los suyos por otra tierra, por que mado y el maestro desterrado. Bien daríamos agora licencia a que parassen todas las novedades en la música, con tal que no quedasse novedad en la república; porque no está el daño en tener la vihuela muchas cuerdas, sino en faltar de la corte muchos cuerdos. Plutarco cuenta que estando él en Roma vió apedrear a un sacerdote griego en el campo Marcio no por más de que en el templo de la diosa Verecinta offiesció un sacrificio delante el pueblo no como los sacerdotes de Roma, sino con las cerimonias de Grecia. Suetonio dize y afirma que en quatro cientos y sesenta y quatro años que duró en Roma el templo de las vírgenes vestales no se hallaron entre ellas sino quatro que fuessen malas, os a saber, Domicia y Rea y Albina y Cornelia, las quales fueron públicamente castigadas y aun bivas en las sepulturas metidas. Si agora se uviessen de registrar y castigar todas las vírgenes que son impúdicas y malas, tengo para mí creído que se hallarían más malas en quatro años que entonces se hallaron en qua tro cientos. Trebelio Publio dize que el emperador Aureliano quitó de censor a su único amigo Rogerio porque en la boda de su vezina Postoria avia comido y dançado, diziendo que el buen juez ha de emplear su gravedad en las cosas de veras y no perderla en tiempo de burlas. No obstante lo que este emperador hizo, todavía nos atreveremos & dar licencia a los juezes para que danzen con los pies con tal que no roben con las manos; porque al pleyteante muy poco se le da que su juez baile en la boda si después en la audiencia le guarda justizia. De Domiciano el emperador también dize Suetonio Tranquilo: Ex decreto Domiciani accusatori qui causam teneret ultra annum, exilio paena esset.»

Quiere dezir que mandó el emperador Dcmiciano que el pleyteante que prorrogasse el pleyto más de un año fuesse de Roma públicamente desteriado. ¡O! , si hasta este nuestro siglo a quella ley durara y que agora se guardara, yo juro y afirmo que fuesse mucho mayor el número de los desterrados que no el de los abogados.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩dió de lançades: older Spanish for spear-thrusts / lance wounds (Joab's killing of Absalom).
  2. 2 ↩piadoso rendered as compassionate (pitying), not narrowly religious piety; fits Marcellus’s traditional tears over burning Syracuse.
  3. 3 ↩Gethé taken as Jephthah (Sp. Jefté); source spelling treated as a variant, not a different figure.
  4. 4 ↩Unpunctuated 'Josef por muerto ya Benjamín' read as two objects of lament: Joseph taken for dead, and Benjamin imprisoned in Egypt; ya taken as coordinating/additive rather than only intensifying 'already dead'.
  5. 5 ↩duende de casa: a household hobgoblin or familiar house spirit — pestilence is so domestic that it feels like a permanent resident of the home.
  6. 6 ↩amiga in this early modern courtly/moral context means a kept mistress or paramour, not a female friend.
  7. 7 ↩Source sentence is truncated mid-phrase (¿Cómo loaremos a nuestro siglo .). Sense continues in s5 (del poco ocio y mucho exercicio...); translate the fragment as given and join sense across the two refs.
  8. 8 ↩Continuation of the truncated s4 opening; together they form one rhetorical question about industry vs. idleness.
  9. 9 ↩revesear: to bring food back up / vomit; regoldar: to belch — excess past satiety into revulsion.
  10. 10 ↩Alludes to the Balearic example in the prior section (Diodorus): islanders cast treasures into the sea to kill outsiders' greed and local factions; here the age does the opposite and sails to the Indies for gold and silver.
  11. 11 ↩Normalized reading takes 'Ossaran' as early-modern 'osaran' (would dare).
  12. 12 ↩'cortesanas' here means courtesans (prostitutes), not female courtiers; 'jugado' is gambling, not mere play.
  13. 13 ↩'hen hallado' read as 'han hallado' (they have found).
  14. 14 ↩'factores' rendered as 'promoters' (agents who further a cause); 'contraditores' as 'opponents'.
  15. 15 ↩Source reads 'Dcmiciano' and 'desteriado'; rendered as Domitian and banished, matching the preceding Suetonius citation on Domitian and ordinary Spanish forms.
  16. 16 ↩Source 'a quella' read as 'aquella' ('that').

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