BOOKS OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3053, 14 April 1917, Page 13

BOOKS OF THE DAY

SPANIBH SKETCHES. Some four years ago Mr. A. B. JPjddington, K..C, of Sydney, coritri'•ibuted to the "Sydney Morning Her- ■ ■eld" a series of articles descriptive of jS. tour in Spain made by him m 1912. The articles have now been republish;ed in volume form, under the title of [;"Spanish Sketches" (Humphrey Milford; Oxford .University Press), and [.the result is a' very delightful book on & country little visited by Australians • fand New Zealauders'- who travel in Mr. Piddington's volume is [Swell worthy a place alongside Richard [Ford's "Gathering's in Spain".(a halfjforgotten. but original and delightful (book, which Mr. Dent has wisely in- . icluded in his' invaluable "Everyman's % ''Library" ; George Borrow's 'Bible in Spain;" and the late Mr. John Hay's excellent book, "Castilian Days."" The [(Australian writer, of course, deals with .'Spain of more recent days, but save for -la chapter on the great Spanish statesman, Canalejas, who was assassinated «n Madrid in November, 1912, and another sketch descriptive of the Cortes j!and Spanish Parliamentary* methods, "the author prefers to dwelt upon Spanish architecture, art, and social life,■!rather than the tangled web of Spanish legislation, and politics. He prefers, jit is clear, to wander in the halfndeserted streets of such "dead cities" Sas Toledo, Cordova, and Granada, to ifiiake clear to us the fascinating Seville street life, or the glories of the jlVelasquez paintings, rather than attempt any description'of political, conv itaercial, and ' industrial Spain of toway.. He is silent upon the great question of progressive republicanism, versus clerical reaction; his only references .to Madrid, - the. political capital, and Jts life are in hiVehapter on the Cortes. On the other hand, no recent'writer on Spain thatl, can recall has written ffiore delightfully on the; charm of ancient and famous'cities, such as Toledo, Cordova, and Granada, and herein his book possesses a charm and value Nvhich is all its own. A' ;'.;-. •The Moors and Their Legacy. u e ors are out of Spain four hundred years and more. But, nevertheless ,theiiv habits, their customs, still riominato tho life of so many of the opanish writers..

i'lie N manner •of life and the living bouses of .Toledo are■ all,pure Oriental. 1 O'ervantes's house, now the Posada de la fciangre, like many others, has a large courtyard surrounded by a'balcony, exactly like those patios : of. '[southern Spain which proved'one of the most exquisite gifts of the Moorish'mind to the anvaded-'country.- -lou see all kinds of trades carried on in low-arched hi'tchca on the street,' just: as at Cairo. At midday the population lie down : in ' their blankets m'the Zocbdover'\'or 'marketplace, .wanned 'by -a,-kindlier fire than that which was'often lighted here for: ah auito-da-le; the -men draw .their capes' up oyer the {mouth'just as the: .conquered Moors,are,shown :in' : a' contemporaneous, picture of their gregarious-baptism after Granada's fall, and just as Italian soldiers in Tripoli could tee the Bedouin guarding himself against sudden dust whirls; the women. ,wear black shawls coming over the forehead- and covering .the mouth in a way'that'recalls-the yashmak of the Mohammedan; the girls go;"pitcher on'head or at hip, to the fountain-just as ..the, .maiden .Rebecca may have done when she lifted her eyes upon the travel-stained young Jacob; A city.quite untouched by modern notions (except that, as generally in. Spain, the electric light has succeeded lamplight without ■ any interregnum ' of gas), with no footpaths or kerbs, no building line for its hquses,.- no 'alignment- for its, tortuou6 and .innumerable, streets,'and-not'even, a horse-tram, ledoi whose primitive mule-drawn .carts, ■ and even/by shod bull's and bullocks, gives "the'visitor;-first and;last an indelible and unique impression that he has lived'a while in the time as well as in the place of creeds and customs and! people centuries in the wake of modern thought and modern activity. . ;

Young Seville and the. Bull-fighters. ,If Toledo and Cordova—Cordoba Muerta, Cordova the Dead—live only is relics or a glorious and picturesque past, Seville is, says the author, "me city of life, the Naples of Spain." It is a busy commercial city a city, however, where patient, and, for the most part, sadly under-paid industry is punctuated by song and.dance, the clicking of castanets,, the twanging or guitars, and, as goes' without saying, a never-ceasing interest in the national delectation, the bull-fight. Where the, youthful Briton plays marbles when "tops are out," and, later on,, waxes madly enthusiastic over "Rugger" or

"soccer," the juvenile Sevillian has for his heroes the matador, the'espada, , , or even that player of a.humbler role in the bull-tight, the picadore.:...At 6very street comer young.Seville indulgesin a mimicry of the hull-fight. Mr. Piddington. describes. this,,youthful pastime as Jollowb:—r. . ■" _. r ... The two principals in the favourit* Spanish street game were, the. "bull' — a boy with a real pair of horns strapped to .3. board, and worn. so as to project from the forehead—and the matador, armed with his red bull-cloth (muleta) and a short wooden sword. A couple of younger boys, with deal-splinters; played the role of picadores, and ■ prodded the bull into action, while the espada, with an air of deepest and most' earnest gravity, oarriod out with delightful skill all tho mimic paseos of the real corrida, ", fluttering his cloth gracefully, standing . to the last possible moment, and then evading death by a silont and swift glide, or a-graceful bend of the body. . Seeing that he was watohed,' the yqung toreador brought tho bull to 6taud, posed opposite him, and ran him through the heart with that one thrust of the espada which is essential if the matador is to win. Unfluahed by his triumph, he turned with a sweep of his sword and ah easy bow that was "muy espanol" 'to th« sptotator.

Gonoerning Columbus. Mr. Piddington has ' something to . say, too, of the Sevillian professional danoers, with whose performances, by the way, he was not specially impressed. But the most interesting 6f his. chapters on Seville is..that which deals with Columbus. It'was from Seville that Columbus, or Colon; as the Spaniards call him, sent his famous letter announcing his discovery of the New World to the Catholic lyings; it is in the Cathedral of ''Seville that lie the bones of the great navigator be- '" »eatb a monument, first-erected in Havana Cathedral, but brought to •Spain in 1899. Round the base of the noble sarcophagus, which is shaped like s bier, borne by figures representing th« Kingdoms of Leon, Castile, Aragon, and Navarre, is inscribed: "Cuba and' its Government erected this monument for the remains of Columbus. When th» island of Cuba freed itself from the Spanish Motherland, Seville obtained the placing of it." Mr. Piddington reminds us of the strange Btory of the wanderings of the remains. Though his will is ( silent as to their disposal, it appears, from Columbus's cldost Bon's (Diego's) tostnment. that he had .wished to be buried in Santo Domingo, as if his ruling passion for the open ocean and the rest had no' 6 been sated by a lifetime of adventures by. sea and he mußt go

Bailing even after his. death.' He was, however, buried at Vallodolid, then moved to the' Chartreuse monastery, m Seville, and thence to Santo Domingo. When the French took Hayti the body of the Gran Capitan was moved on yet again, this time to Havana Cathedral. Hence it has in our own time taken ship back to Europe and the banks of the Guadalquiver, there, let us hope, to lie at last, undisturbed. What a voyager!

Spanish Art. . I have.not space to spare for quota--.tiohs from Mr. Piddington.'s charming description of the Alhambra. Also, I am debarred from giving any extract from the excellent chapters on Velasquez, whom Sir Joshua Reynolds, it may be remembered, described as doing "at once what we others spend a lifetime in trying to do." lam sorry, however, that the author should have made no reference to the brilliant art of Goya, in his own way almost as great a/figure in the history of Spanish art as Velasquez himself, and that bs omits to remind us that modern Spanish art, as exemplified in the "naturalism" of a Zuluoaga or a Sorolla, is full of rich promiso of an Iberian art renaissance of high importance. A special and delightful feature of the book _is the-series of beautiful reproductions,' in photogravure, of photographs of famous • Spanish churches and architecture generally. Several reproductions of Velasquez's paintings are also welcome. (N.Z. price 65.)