E L
S O M B R E R O D E T R E S P I C O S
HISTORIA VERDADERA DE UN SUCEDIDO QUE ANDA
EN
ROMANCES ESCRITA AHORA TAL Y COMO PASÓ
POR
i
D. PEDRO A. DE ALARCÓN
Bachiller en Filosofía y Teología, etc, etc
EDITED WITH INTRODUCTION, NOTES, ANDVOCABULARY
BY
BENJAMIN P. BOURLAND
Professor in Adelbert College of Western Reserve University
NEW YORK
HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY
ii COPYRIGHT, 1907,
BY
HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY
May, 1934
N. R. A.
PRINTED IN THE U. S. A.
Preface
o I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX,
X, XI, XII, XIII., XIV, XV, XVI,
XVII, XVIII, XIX, XX, XXI, XXII,
XXIII, XXIV, XXV, XXVI, XXVII,
Notes
iii
PREFACE
The present edition of El Sombrero de tres picos is
designed to makethe book accessible as a text for use in
college classes as early as thesecond or third semester of
Spanish study. The plan of the edition needsno special
comment. The editor has made the effort to include in
thenotes and the vocabulary explanation sufficient to cover
alldifficulties reasonably to be attributed to students who
have donecareful work in the elements of Spanish
grammar, and the usualelementary reading. The numerous
references in the notes are addressedmore particularly to
the teachers.
In the use of the vocabulary, it should be borne in mind
that the latteris designed for this text alone, and is in no
sense a dictionary. It maybe said also that an effort has
been made to exclude from the notes allpuerilities, and the
explanation of commonplaces, whether of history,grammar,
or mythology.
Grateful acknowledgment is made here to the friends who
have helped theeditor in whatever way in the preparation of
this book, and in especialto Professor De Haan of Bryn
Mawr College; to Professor Caroline B.Bourland of Smith
College, the editor's sister; to iv ProfessorWilliam D.
Briggs, of the Leland Stanford, Jr. University; to
ProfessorChristian Gauss, of Princeton University; to the
Rev. Gilbert P.Jennings, Rector of St. Agnes' Church in
Cleveland, and to Don AdolfoBonilla y San Martín, of
Madrid; and lastly, and most of all, to theeditor's friend and
pupil,
Mr.
Gustav
G.
Laubscher,
of
Adelbert
College,whose work on the vocabulary was more nearly
collaboration thanassistance.
B. P. B.
CLEVELAND, December, 1906.
v
INTRODUCTION
I. Alarcón's Life
Pedro Antonio de Alarcón was born at Guadix in the
province of Granada,the 10th of March 1833, the fourth of
ten children of an old and noblefamily, whose wealth had
been lost in the wars of the Napoleonic periodand the
disorders that had followed. His father destined him for
thebar, and after reaching the baccalaureate at the age of
fourteen, at the seminario of Guadix, he went to Granada to
begin his professionalstudies, only to be recalled by the res
angusta domi to his home,where perforce he exchanged
jurisprudence for theology, and beganpreparation for the
priesthood.
The boy's heart was not in his professional studies, and
his bestefforts were given to other matters; he taught
himself French andItalian, began to write, and formed the
project of going to Madrid, toset up as a man of letters. His
parents declined to support him in thisambition, but
Alarcón
persisted.
Through
Torcuato
Tárrago,
a
youngwriter at that time living in Guadix, he was
introduced to a Cadizpublisher, who undertook the issuing
of a weekly journal, El Eco deOccidente, which was to
appear at Cadiz and Granada, and whose literaryredaction
was to be entrusted to the two young men. The venture
vi was successful. After three years' work the savings
seemed sufficient,and on the 18th of January, 1853,
Alarcón left home.
He went first to Cadiz, where he gave his attention to
mattersconcerning the journal, and a month later he
reached Madrid,—withoutintroduction or friends, but with
some little money and with a goodlysheaf of verses,
notably an ambitious continuation of Espronceda's Diablo
Mundo, all of which he burned, after much interviewing
ofpublishers. In short, he did not get along at all at the
capital, andwhen his money was gone and the husks were
sour, he made his own theimmemorial custom of the
prodigal, and went back to his father's house.A complete
reconciliation followed his return. He had been drawn
formilitary service: his father purchased his release, and
gave himpermission to live in Granada, where he renewed
his connection with the Eco de Occidente. In Granada also
he found agreeable literary society,and the year spent there
was one of profit to himself and of success forhis journal,
in whose management he had an increasing influence
andpart.
His first mingling in politics was in 1854, when he took
open and activepart in the rebellion that culminated in the
mutiny of Vicálvaro (the30th of June), distinguishing
himself by his noisy and militantradicalism, and gaining
the ill-will of many of the elements whosefavor, in his later
life, he found it wise to win—the clergy, the army,the
national militia. Before the end of the year he was in
Madrid, wherehe became the editor of El Látigo, the most
extreme of theanti-royalist periodicals. This connection vii
was ended by aduel, and Alarcón gave up politics for the
time, and retired to Segovia,to restore health broken by
irregular living, and to write. El Final deNorma was the
most ambitious work that dates from this time, with avery
great number of short stories and miscellaneous articles
publishedin various journals, all of which brought him a
considerable reputationthroughout Spain. In 1856 he
visited Paris and "wrote up" the expositionof that year for the Spanish press. Towards the end of 1857 he made
hisappearance at the theatre of the Circo at Madrid, with
his one play, ElHijo Pródigo. The première was riotously successful, but the criticswere against the author, whose
personality seems to have been a largefactor in the matter,
and
the
piece
was
soon
withdrawn.
In
1859
Alarcónvolunteered for the campaign in Morocco, and after
doing excellentservice, was honorably discharged in April,
1860, when he returned toSpain. The fruit of this military
experience was the Diario de untestigo de la Guerra de
África, which is of his best work. The book
wasexceedingly successful commercially, and the author's
profits permittedhim the journeying in France, Switzerland,
and Italy, whose story istold in De Madrid a Nápoles, two
volumes of fairly acute observationand superior literary
worth. (August, 1860—February, 1861).
From this time until 1873 Alarcón was devoted to an
active politicallife, into whose details we need not follow
him. He was deputy fromGuadix much of the time, and was
prominent as a writer for the Época,then as now the first
conservative newspaper of Spain, and later as oneof the
founders and editors of La Política. He had much
viii success, and we are told that only feelings of personal
delicacy stoodbetween him and the holding of at least one
ministerial portfolio. In1866 he was one of the signers of a
celebrated protest of the unionistdeputies, and was
dignified by being sent into exile for a time, andafterwards
being forbidden to live in Madrid. In 1863 his father
died,and in 1866 he was married in Granada to Doña
Paulina Contreras y Reyes.
From 1873 until his death, July 18, 1891, he lived
principally inMadrid, until 1888 taking a large part in
literary life, and not withoutsome mingling in matters
public. In 1875, as one of the early supportersof the
Alfonsine restoration, he was made Councillor of State;
and onDecember 15th of the same year he was elected to
the Spanish Academy, inwhich he took his seat about a
year later. His pen was very active. ElSombrero de tres
picos, El Escándalo, El Niño de la Bola, LaPródiga, El Capitán Veneno, are from this final period, which
wasopened with La Alpujarra. He gave much time also to
revising,selecting, and destroying, to which process we
owe the definitivecollection of works noticed below. In
1887 his powers began noticeablyto fail. In 1888 there was
a first hemiplegia—then other attacksfollowed in
December 1889, and February, 1890, and the final one
inJuly, 1891.
II. Alarcón's Works
Alarcón's writings have been brought together in nineteen
volumes,sixteen of which are of the well known Colección
de EscritoresCastellanos. There are three volumes of short
stories, the NovelasCortas; four longer novels, ix
El Escándalo, La Pródiga, El Final de Norma, El Niño de la Bola;two stories that are neither long nor short, El
Capitán Veneno and ElSombrero de tres picos; one volume
of popular sketches, Cosas quefueron; three volumes of
travels, Viajes por España, one volume, and De Madrid a
Nápoles, two; an historic-geographical study, LaAlpujarra;
one volume of essays, Juicios Literarios; and one volumeof
verse. The three volumes outside the collection contain
thecelebrated Diario de un testigo de la Guerra de África.
Of all this mass, only two works are really first-rate: El
Sombrero detres picos and El Capitán Veneno; of the
special merits of these weshall speak again presently. The
diary of the African war has wonpraise, and so have the
books of travel; an occasional short story isgood; the longer
novels have no permanent worth, the verse isinsignificant.
The most ambitious of the novels, El Escándalo, was
published in 1875.Its author, in his Historia de mis libros,
included in the collectedworks in the volume with El
Capitán Veneno, makes a defence of thisbook that is most
illuminating as to the principles of criticismpracticed by the
Spanish critics of the day, and that gives us a clearsight of
the literary conditions of the time. The artistic question
doesnot seem to have been raised: the one asked is simply
as to the author'sattitude toward certain other matters,
chiefly of religion; and it is onthe correctness of these
views that the book is to stand or fall.Alarcón in his
defence, accepts the situation, and joins issue: and hedoes
this with a willingness that lets us see x that his own
mindcould discover no impropriety in treating literature in
that way.[1]Herein lies the explanation of many weaknesses in Alarcón's work, which,given his many good qualities,
might else cause us to wonder.
Alarcón's best points are a very keen eye for a situation,
thoroughcontrol of a language adequate to his matter, an
excellent idea of theexigencies of style offered by his
situations, and a keen sense ofhumor, which, however,
occasionally goes to sleep or deserts. Hisweakness lies in
the faulty idea of his task already pointed out, in acertain
immaturity, a childish petulance that stays with him to
thelast, and in an utter inability to develop a character. He
can pictureone admirably, but he cannot make one grow;
and in general, he does nottry it. The one place in which he
has some measure of success in thisnot easy task is in Don
Jorge of the Capitán Veneno, whose struggle isvery prettily
exhibited; but the great, the serious effort, Fabián Condein
El Escándalo, falls flat. His is a metempsychosis, not
adevelopment.
The Spanish language does not lend itself with much
grace to the needsof the modern short story. Its leisurely
diffuseness is a fair reflex ofthe mode of thought it
represents; so Alarcón cannot, except within thefour seas of
Spain, be held a really good writer in this genre.[2] Itis in the happy borderland between the long and the very xi
short,that he has done his best. Finding himself for once—
or for twice—witha literary task (quite unconsciously to
himself, it is true) exactlyfitted to his abilities, he has
arrived, and succeeded. El CapitánVeneno and El
Sombrero de tres picos are real works of art, for theirauthor
in them has shaken himself free of self-consciousness,
forgottento preach or to moralize, let ethics and politics
alone and writtenwithout outward haste or inward restraint.
Alarcón's work in pure literature was beyond question
much hampered byhis political life, and by the false notions
of the aims and ends ofbelles-lettres into which, as he grew
older, the life of the times andhis own disposition caused
him to fall. The history of Spain of hislifetime is a
nightmare. Whether, if he had lived in happier days,
hewould have done better work, is one of those literary
questions that aregood and pleasant to think and talk over,
but unprofitable to writeabout. Still, the constructive
psychologist should have great joy inAlarcón, should he
have the patience to read all his works, for the manreveals
himself naked as do few; and it is most edifying to see
theconservative academician of El Escándalo and La
Época making hispeace with the world and with heaven for
the sins of the editor of ElLátigo. Truly he seems to wish that we should know that he felt indeedthat he had sinned
much, and need make great haste.
III. El Sombrero de Tres Picos
El Sombrero de tres picos was written and published in
1874. It madeits first appearance on August 2, 9, 16th xii of
that year, innumbers 23, 24, 25, of the Revista Europea,
was issued in book formimmediately, and has passed
through thirteen editions. Alarcón has giventwo accounts of
its genesis—one in the original form of the preface tothe
book, and the other in his Historia de mis libros. They are
notmutually exclusive, though the second mentioned,
which the author hasallowed to stand, forgets much that is
confided in the first.[3]
The success of the story was immediate and deserved.
The pseudo-modestpraise, "the least bad of my books,"
applied by Alarcón to ElEscándalo, might be transferred
and made positive here. The skill ofconstruction, the exact
sense of propriety that preserves every decencywhile
yielding no shred of the interest, the really admirable
dialogue,and the beautifully Spanish atmosphere of it all,
make us wish that theauthor's judgment had led him oftener
into these ways, where alone hisdesire fails to outrun xiii his
performance. Alarcón has writtensensational sermons—
witness El Escándalo; psychological romance, withthe
psychology left out, as in La Pródiga; infantile melodrama,
in ElNiño de la Bola; and utter balderdash, as El Final de Norma; but ElSombrero is not like any of these. It is worthy of the rank it holdsamong the longer short stories of
literature, a strong, objective pieceof work, without shade
of self-consciousness; a fine story, in short,admirably told.
Aside from its purely æsthetic value, the book is aprecious
document to the student of the history of manners and
customsin Spain, both in its lines and in the much that is to
be read betweenthem.
Adolfo Bonilla y San Martín has recently published a
short account ofthe sources of El Sombrero.[4] He takes it back to a well-known storyof the Decameron (day 8, novel
8), and reprints two popular ballads,to one of which,
already
published
by
Agustín
Durán
in
his
RomanceroGeneral (Vol. 2, p. 409), Alarcón in his preface
acknowledges hisindebtedness. The other ballad seems
from language and form to beyounger; the content of the
two is almost identical. It is not mypurpose in the present
place to enlarge on Bonilla's article, though Isuspect that
the theme in its cruder forms is considerably older
thanBoccaccio; he has given us all that served as the first-
hand sources ofour story, and more, and he seems to me
beyond any doubt to be in theright in holding that the
differences to be noted between these sourcesand the novel
are Alarcón's own, not the product of some other model,
tohim (Bonilla) unknown. To my mind this conclusion xiv
should bemore strongly put. In his preface Alarcón tells us
where he found thestory, and makes direct reference to the
Durán Romancero; had he hadanother, more strictly
decorous, version at hand, one in short bettersuited to his
need, he had surely mentioned it. Bonilla seems to me
totake far too seriously the closing lines of the preface,
which, to onewithout the pale, seem simply a graceful
confession of faith in thebasic decency of Spain. For the
sources of the book, then, Alarcón'spreface and Bonilla's
essay must seem a sufficient guide.
The text here printed is that of the thirteenth Spanish
edition. Twopassages have been omitted; one (after page 6,
line 28 of this text)touching taxes and imposts, as being
unduly difficult, and of no help tothe story: the curious may
find it in the notes. The other, a bare twolines, had too
much local color for dignified appearance in the
Americanclassroom. The only other changes the editor has
allowed himself areoccasional deviations from the
somewhat arbitrary system ofcapitalization followed in the
model.
My friend Professor De Haan, of Bryn Mawr College, did
me the favor ofmaking a collation of this text with that of
the first edition in bookform, which, as it appeared so
promptly after the other, is probably toall intents and
purposes identical with that of the serial. Thedifferences to
be noted between the first and thirteenth editions
arealtogether matters of style, except in the preface, where,
as noted, theend is very different in the two. As I have not
had access to all theeditions, I cannot say with certainty
when the revision was made: it islikely that it came when
Alarcón prepared the definitive edition of hisworks xv for
the Colección de Escritores Ca