Yet another important difference between the two novels lies in Luna's emphasis on tying up loose ends.We know that in the first Lazarillo the protagonist leaves the blind man for dead,not knowing what happened to him,and we never do find out whether he survived the blow or not.Later the squire runs away from Lazaro,and we never see him again either.The author of the first Lazarillo gives us a series of vignettes in which the psychological interplay of the characters is stressed.The characters fade out of Lazaro's life just as people fade in and out of our own lives.Luna,however,was much more interested in telling a good story--and one that has an ending.So the squire appears,and tells what happened to him after leaving Lazaro:a complete story in itself.He steals Lazaro's clothes and runs off,and later we see him again--having got his just retribution almost by pure chance.The innkeeper's daughter runs off with her priest,and both turn up several chapters later;their account amounts to another short story.The "innocent"girl and the bawd disappear,then return to play a scene with Lazaro once more,and finally they fade out,presumably to live by their wits ever after.Related to this stress on external action is the importance Luna gives to deive rather than psychological detail.His minutely detailed deions of clothing are especially noteworthy:the squire's "suit";the gallant's clothing as he emerges from the trunk;the costume worn by the girl who became a gypsy.These are deions we do not find in the original Lazarillo because the author of that work is much more interested in internal motivations than external deion and action.
Let us move on to another point:the social satire in the two novels.We have seen the satire against the various classes,and particularly against the church,in the first Lazarillo .And Luna's satire has the same targets.The essential difference is in the way the two authors handle their darts.The first Lazarillo is fairly subtle in its attacks:men are avaricious,materialistic unscrupulous infamous--and these vices are sometimes only very loosely connected with the church.But Luna wants us to know definitely that the church is like this,so his satire of the church is blunt and devastating.The Inquisition,he tells us plainly,is corrupt,brutal,and feared throughout all of Spain.Priests and friars are always anxious to accept a free meal,they have mistresses,and they are less principled than thieves.Lawyers and the entire judicial system are corrupt.The Spaniards,Luna tells us from his position of exile in Paris,are too proud to work,and they will become beggars rather than perform any sort of-manual labor.Lazaro himself is held up to us as a "mirror of Spanish sobriety."
Apparently Luna's anger about having to leave Spain had no opportunity to mellow before he finished his novel.
Luna's Second Part of Lazarillo of Tormes is not the "First Part."But even so,it has its merit.Luna liked to tell stories,and he was good at it.Some scenes are witty and highly entertaining.When Lazaro meets his old friends,the bawd and the "maiden,"at an inn,the action is hardly dull.The "quarter of kid"becomes the center of attraction from the time it appears on Lazaro's plate until he falls and ejects it from his throat,and it is used skillfully and humorously to tell us a great deal about each of the characters present.
Another scene worth calling to the reader's special attention is the chapter in which a feast is held that erupts into a brawl,after which the local constabulary arrives.Luna's account is a very close predecessor of the modern farce.Many of the elements seem to be present:a lack of reverence,a situation used for comic effects,the chase through many rooms to find the guests,the beatings that the constable's men are given by the pursued,being "breaded"in flour,"fried"in oil,and left out on the street where they run away,ashamed to be seen.It is as though we are catching a glimpse of the Keystone Cops,seventeenth-century style.And the variations from seventeenth to twentieth century do not appear to amount to a great deal.
University of California at Los Angeles December 1972 ROBERT S.RUDDER
Translator's Note
My translation of the first Lazarillo follows Foulche Delbosc's edition,which attempts to restore the editio princeps but does not include the interpolations of the Alcala de Henares edition.The translation of the first chapter of the anonymous sequel of 1555follows at the end of the first part because it serves as a bridge between the first novel and Luna's sequel.For Juan de Luna's sequel,the modern edition by Elmer Richard Sims,more faithful to the manu than any other edition,has been utilized.
A word of thanks is due to Professor Julio Rodriguez Puertolas,whose own work was so often interrupted by questions from the outer sanctum,and who nevertheless bore through it all with good humor,and was very helpful in clearing up certain mysteries in the text.
The seventy-three drawings [not included in this electronic text]were prepared by Leonard Bramer,a Dutch painter who was born in 1596and died in 1674.Living most of his life in Delft,he is best known for his drawings and for his illustrations of Ovid's writings and of other works of literature.The original drawings are in the keeping of the Graphische Sammlung in Munich.
R.S.R.
