Abstract
The work is pretentious from the very Preface, and is a monument of Spanish literature mainly for the reason that it is the earliest important specimen of the wretched taste that was soon to prevail. As a picaresque novel it may safely be left unread, for the adventures are uninteresting in the extreme; but a curious piece of literature it is, with its shallow witticisms and proudly announced variety of verse. In the matter of language it is a useful book, since, with its endless play upon words and violent combinations of ideas, it furnishes material not easily gathered from the more pithy jokes of the graciosos, the comical characters in the Spanish classical drama.91
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Notes
Editions: 1. 1605, Medina del Campo, Cristobal Lasso Vaca, in-40. (On the title-page: Lic. Francisco de Ubeda; privilegio: Fr. Lopez de Ubeda. Gallardo, III, no. 2795, says: with a plate among the preliminaries; Salvá, no. 1871: with double page 182. Heredia, no. 2588. Quaritch, Bibl. Hisp., no. 827: with engraved frontispiece). 2. 1605, Barcelona, Cormellas, in-80. (Brunei. Salvá, no. 1871). 3. 1608, Brucelas, Brunello, small 80. (Ticknor, Catal.: with folded plate). 4. 1640, Barcelona, in-80. (Brunet. Brit. Mus.: by P. Lacavalleria). 5. 1707, Barcelona, in-80. (Brunet, quoted by Salvá, no. 1872). 6. 1735, Madrid, Zuñiga, in-40. (Ticknor, Catal.) Salvá (no. 1873) gives an extract from Mayans’ Preface to this edition, in which it is contended that the author was Fray Andrés Pérez, a statement not accepted by E. Mérimée (Quevedo, Paris, 1886, p. 157, note 2). The “versos de pie quebrado” which we find in the Justina (in which Don Quijote is mentioned) have given rise to the questions whether the Quijote was known before 1605, and whether Cervantes used this verse first. Gallardo (III, no. 2795) gives the date of the Privilegio of the Justina as 22 August, 1604. Barrera (p. 421) finds mention of the Quijote in a letter by Lope, dated 4 August, 1604. Gayangos, in his Cervantes en Valladolid (reprinted, Madrid, 1884, from Revista de España, vol. 97–98), demonstrates that the Quijote was even known in 1603. It seems, therefore, that Ticknor (II. p 218, note) was right in assuming that Cervantes was the first to use this verse. The pretentiousness of the Justina shows itself in the Prólogo (see Riv., 33, p. 47); the title-page (see Gallardo, III, no. 2795) promises fifty-one kinds of verse (the Brussels edition of 1608 gives only fifty). Its attempt at wit is evident in the headings of the introductory chapters: “Al pelo de la pluma”; “á la mancha”; etc. Mayans (referred to by Ticknor, II, 218) considers this book one of the first to write “culto”. It seems to me that in the middle of the Sixteenth century the foundation, if not the actual practice, existed. For example, in Feliciano de Silva’s Celestina we find striking specimens, while in other Celestinas we meet frequent ironical remarks about such style, and, indeed, it looks as if Feliciano de Silva even mocks it himself.
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De Haan, F. (1903). La picara Justina. In: An Outline of the History of the Novela Picaresca in Spain. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-6318-9_4
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