La poesía amorosa de Quevedo. Disposición y estilo desde Canta sola a Lisi por Santiago Fernández Mosquera (review)

Reviews t* 105 Fernandez Mosquera, Santiago . La poesia amorosa de Quevedo. Disposition y estilo desde Canta sola a Lisi. Madrid: Gredos. 1999. 420 pp. ISBN 84-249-1986-6. Santiago Fernandez Mosquera's latest study of Quevedo's love poetry is divided into 3 chapters and an appendix. Chapter I, «Canta sola a Lisi» como cancionero (15-54) introduces the notion of genre: in a time of Uterary innovation and changing Uterary forms, what exactly is the Canta sola a Lisi? In search of an answer to this question, Santiago Fernandez Mosquera studies the differences between the Canzionere of Petrarch and the Canta sola a Lisi, showing that the two cycles actuaUy have great and demonstrable differences; while the poems of the Canzionere are accumulated throughout Petrarch's Uterary career, the Canta sola a Lisi is put together as a macrotext towards the end of Quevedo's life, either by Gonzalez de Salas or by the poet himsetf (24-26). Further, where the Canzionere has an accepted, moral purpose, the Canta sola a Lisi must be seen from the perspective of a rhetorical sequence which reUes on Uterary aUusion much more than on Uved, existential experience for, as Santiago Fernandez Mosquera, foUowing the thoughts of Paul JuUan Smith, clearly states: "El significado de Canta sola a Lisi no parece ser biografico, ni moral; es Uterario" (30). Those differences having been established, Santiago Fernandez Mosquera studies Canta sola a Lisi as an example of how the Petrarchan cancionero.was understood in Spain in the seventeenth century (30-43): "Ubros de poesia... en los que se evidencia, a uno o mas-niveles, algiin intento de organization interna de la materia" (31). Clearly, this definition is broad enough to include within its limits virtuaUy any numbered, ordered coUection. However, Santiago Fernandez Mosquera goes on to demonstrate the organizing principles behind Canta sola a Lisi: "una traditional amada como Laura" (34), "una progresion temporal expUcita destacando tres aniversarios de seis, diez, y veintidos anos" (34), and a perfect symmetry which numbers the 6th anniversary sonnet as poem 20, the 10th anniversary sonnet as poem 30, and the 22nd anniversary sonnet as poem 50. Years 1-6 (20 poems), years 7-10 (10 poems), years 11-22 (20 poems): this is a careful arrangement and no coincidence, says Fernandez Mosquera who writes that "La simetria es perfecta y difucilmente puede resultar casual" (36). Further, as he demonstrates, ""La imitation no es solo estructural, es tambien anecdotica" (36). In the third part of the first chapter, Relaciones y nucleos estructurales en 'Canta sola a Lisi' (43-54), Fernandez Mosquera examines the links between the poems, showing how the poems are bound closely, even in their titles "La presencia de terminos como « c o n t i n u a » , « p e r s e v e r a » y « p r o s i g u e » en compositiories contiguas denota que el redactor de los epigrafes entendio 106 «5 Reviews los sonetos como continuation uno del otro" (48). The second chapter, entitled El estilo de 'Canta sola a Lisi' (55-289) is a seemingly never ending sequence of Uterary and rhetorical devices, many of which are examined at great length. These include Los tropos y los topicos (57-179),Figurasdediction (179-233) and Figuras depensamiento (23489 ). That these figures are exhaustively examined can be seen from the foUowing selections: La prision amorosa (59), Homo viator(66), La naturaleza (74), metdforas de animates (76), metdforas de vegetales (92), metdforas de minerales (103), elementosfisicos y meteorologicos (109), elfuego y su isotopia (111), el agua y su isotopia (119), metdforas astronomicos y cosmologicos (126), metdforas mitoldgicas (143), metonimia y sinecdoque (165) and antonomasia e hiperbole (172). These last four analyses serve as an introduction to the more rhetorical part of the study and Fernandez Mosquera continues with Figurae per adiectionem (179-212), Figurae per detractionem (213-16), and Figurae per ordinem (216-33). Also included in this section are studies on apostrophe (234-43), interrogatio and subiectio (243-49), antitheton (24965 ), without forgetting the delightfully named Figuras afectivas, imprescindibles en un cancionero hiperbolico y amoroso (265-81). The remainder of thebook is taken up with Chapter III: Autor...