Crisis and change in early modern Spain (review)

Abstract

Reviews 189 paraphrase that glosses the tale by constant reference to the Augustinian matrix. Doubdess the Fall went into the making of the Merchant's tale, but such lengthy paraphrase simply proves how litde the conscious recollection of Augustine's figured narrative of the Fall adds to an understanding of what is going on in Chaucer's story. Jager suggests, for instance, that the smock flung up to May's neck by the urgent Damian connects her with Eve, smocks being latterday fig leaves. If anything, his argument would have seemed more incisive if he had insisted less on typographical conformity and instead acknowledged that sometimes a smock is not a fig leaf. Sometimes a smock is just a smock. Much of Jager's commentary on Genesis B has been published recently in various journals. Perhaps the work that has gone into The tempter's voice might have had more impact if, much trimmed, it had found its way into print in article form. It issues from an interesting idea and, working its way through successive illustrative texts, generates any number of intriguing possibilities, but finally does not succeed in convincing us of then virtue by argument or analysis. It does not add up to the sum of its parts. However, at the very least, Jager does persuade us that the Fall is such a tidy figure for the instability of the sign in discourse that, if it had not happened, someone would certainly have had to invent it. Roger Nicholson Department of English University of Auckland Kamen, Henry, Crisis and change in early modern Spain (CoUected studies series, 415), Aldershot, Variorum, 1993; cloth; pp. x, 290; R.R.P.£42.50. These fourteen studies remind us ofjust how wide-ranging Kamen's interests have been over the last thirty years or so. There are articles on the decline of Spain, including a controversial one of 1978 that set out to show why the notion of decline is unsatisfactory in this case, and attempted to replace it with dependency theory. There are others on clerical violence, on the expulsion of the Jews, on toleration and dissent, on the Inquisition and purity of blood, on banditry in Valencia, on a peasant rising in Catalonia, on a Catalan reformer in the reign of the last Habsburg, on a leading Castilian minister and reformer in the reign of the fhst Bourbon, on Bourbon innovation in the royal bureaucracy, and on the significance of the 190 Reviews destruction of the silver fleet in 1702. These purely Spanish topics are introduced by a section containing 'Golden age, hon age; a conflict of concepts in the Renaissance', and "The economic and social consequences of the Thirty Years'War'. The selections vary considerably in type. The article on the silver fleet, for instance, sets a record straight on a particular event. Those on the reformers, the innovations, banditry, and the peasant revolt, enlarge our knowledge and understanding without raising anything controversial. On the other hand, "The decline of Spain: a historical myth?' (1978) was an important contribution to a debate on a very broad topic. The debate has moved on, but the article remains essential reading for those who are interested in its history. T w o of the studies are useful correctives of some popular views, though one tends to overstate its case. 'Toleration and dissent in sixteenth-century Spain: the alternative tradition' begins by citing the medieval 'convivencia' of the three religions, but admits that this was scarcely toleration in a m o d e m sense. It then shows that sixteenth-century Spaniards could openly deprecate the use of force to convert infidels, scarcely a surprise for anyone who has heard of Las Casas. Finally, there is evidence to show that there was a current of opinion in favour of not using force against heretics in the Netherlands and the Germanies. But all this falls short of demonstrating 'a commitment to pluralism' ( p. 3 ). 'A crisis of conscience in golden age Spain: the Inquisition against "Limpieza de Sangre" ' , proves that there was more criticism of corporate entrance statutes demanding purity of blood (that is, freedom from Jewish, Muslim, or heretic ancestry) made by members...