The Socio-Historical Context of Montemayor’s Diana

My very first encounter with Elias Rivers was in a class on pastoral literature given by him at Ohio State University. I was quickly impressed by his profound knowledge of the subject, by his critical insight, and above all by his gracious manner and inspiring ways, by his humanity. Our academic dialogues soon evolved into a friendship that has lasted a lifetime. It is that spirit of camaraderie, and I do not know what else, that led this amazing mentor to invite me to join him at Johns Hopkins University, where, under his tutelage, I was able to complete my graduate studies in record time of two years. Intense two years they were, with a good measure of training in Golden Age studies, particularly the picaresque and the bucolic traditions. Hence, I offer this modest contribution in memory of an exemplary scholar and gentleman.

Spain, the mother of the modern novel, fostered pastoral literature to an unparalleled degree throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The unique success of books about shepherds in Spain can be attributed to the readers’ appreciation of the esthetic and moral values disclosed in that literature, but also—and fundamentally so—to the esteem in which was held the work of shepherds, that “noble pastoral occupation” (Krauss 365), discussed with such enthusiasm by Gabriel Alonso de Herrera in his volume Agricultura General, of 1513. Praise of shepherds and the rural world had also come from Aristotle who proclaimed that a farming and pastoral society was the only one able to sustain a system of democracy without the danger of corruption (Politics VI, 2).

The novel’s aim, notes Georg Lukács, is “to represent a particular social reality at a particular time, with all the colour and specific atmosphere of the time” (177). In Diana, the interaction of fiction and history is far greater than has been noted thus far. The characters are either shepherds, or disguise themselves as shepherds, not of an imaginary Arcadian land, but rather of Spain (or Portugal) itself. In contrast to Virgil, “who was said to have deliberately placed in the mouths of his herdsmen geographical statements that are false or confusing” (Rosenmeyer 115; e.g., Eclogues II, 24), Montemayor has his shepherds present a catalogue of accurate and readily-identifiable locations. Most of the action of the novel takes place in the fields of León, by the banks of the river Esla, where there begins a glade, ideal as a cattle path, that extends to the river Duero and beyond to the Tajo river, not far from the Portuguese border (Krauss 367). In this respect, Montemayor’s work reflects what Américo Castro has called “integralismo hispánico” (92), the desire of the Spaniard to live on its own soil, to be identified with it.

Following the example of migratory movement set by Torquemada’s pastoral dialogue of 1552, in which shepherds “[se] pusieron … en cuidado de baxar los ganados a la tierra llana” (Werner 367), Sireno “baxaba de las montañas de León … a los verdes y deleitosos prados” (9) of the dale below. From there, he and the other shepherds and shepherdesses whom he meets move from one dale to another until they reach Felicia’s palace. When they eventually take leave of the palace, they all go back to caring for their flocks in the lush glens.

As Theocritus had done before him, Montemayor uses the pastoral form to praise his homeland. In Book VII of Diana, he describes, through Felismena, the Portuguese countryside, near Coimbra, “una de las más insignes y principales [ciudades] de aquel reyno y aún de toda la Europa,” we are told, a city bathed by the “cristalinas aguas” of the Mondego. Standing in the foreground is the historical castle of “Monte moro vello” (the birthplace of Montemayor), “adonde la virtud, el ingenio, valor y esfuerço avían quedado,” in the words of the author, “por tropheos de las hazañas que los habitadores dél, en aquel tiempo avían hecho; y que las damas que en él avía y los cavalleros...