Le Réveille-matin des courtisans ou Moyens légitimes pour parvenir à la faveur et pour s’y maintenir by Antonio de Guevara (review)

Abstract

962 Reviews forinstance that ars is not a coquille for art and that lettremay appear with either one V or two, that one assumes the edition is destined for the beginner rather than the more advanced student or specialist. If this is indeed so, the price forsuch a slim text is rather high and the introduction exiguous in the extreme. A less advanced reader would have benefited from rather fuller contextualization of the language questions of the day, and perhaps a more complete bibliography. Nevertheless, this is one for the library shelf. University of Hull Pauline M. Smith Le Reveille-matin des courtisans ou Moyens legitimespour parvenir a lafaveur etpour syy maintenir. By Antonio de Guevara. Ed. by NathaliePeyrebonne. (Textesde la Renaissance: serie Sources espagnoles, 2, 25) Paris: Champion. 1999. 472 pp. 410 F. Among Honore Champion's collection of elegantly presented Renaissance texts, this is the second whose aim is to make available a bilingual edition of a work by a Spanish author widely read in sixteenth-century Europe. The volume is all the more interesting because the French translation is not a modern one but a version by Sebastien Hardy, 'receveur des tailles en l'election du Mans', published in 1622. The editor points out that this is much more likely to capture the spirit of the original than a twentieth-century rendering. The French printer's haphazard spelling and punctuation have been modernized; the period syntax is left untouched. For Guevara's text Nathalie Peyrebonne has drawn mainly on three editions: the editio princeps of 1539 and those that appeared in 1605 (the first to bear the title as it presently stands) and 1612. The sections of the lucid and attractively written introduction include an outline of Guevara's life and a review of the fortunes of the Despertador de cortesanos, published so soon after Castiglione's much better-known //libro del cortegiano and sufferingas a result of this overshadowing. An analysis follows of the important differences in attitude to court life of the ltalian author and his Spanish counterpart, with Gue? vara's outlook clearly reflecting the realism characteristic of Spain. This Franciscan bishop's long years at court resulted in 'une vision [. . .] fondee sur le vecu' (p. 23), compared with Castiglione's idealistic pen-portrait ofthe perfect courtier. A study of the Despertador's style illustrates how it is dominated now by the acclaimed preacher and orator, now by the writer fullyconscious of his craft. There is an explanation too of Guevara's cavalier inaccuracy in referring to the Classics, a characteristic of his time, the editor points out, and to be found also in Montaigne (pp. 22-26). A short bibliography rounds offthe preliminary material. The notes are particularly strong in their tracking down of Guevara's classical sources and of points of comparison between this text and his other works. Another of the editor's stated criteria for the notes is to comment where appropriate on the translation of the original Spanish (p. 30). It is certain that no two editors would highlight identical passages under this heading, and it is easy to imagine long sessions at a translators' conferencespent on discussing, forinstance, whether Sebastien Hardy faithfullyrendered every nuance ofthe verses relating Don Alvaro de Luna's fall from favour (pp. 36-43)If anyone doubts the relevance of such Renaissance texts as Guevara's for the twenty-firstcentury and its universities, there is no need to look further than the opening paragraph on pp. 50 and 51, typically smoothly flowing in the French version, more emphatic-sounding in the Spanish. The author urges his public to make time to read his pages, although he doubts whether courtiers will have even a moment MLR, 97.4, 2002 963 to glance at them, io cual de mi parecer no debia pasar asi, porque los hombres prudentes y sabios no se han de enfrascar tanto en los negocios que no tomen un poco del dia para acordarse siquiera de si mismos' ('Car les hommes sages ne se doivent tellement embarrasser es affaires qu'ils ne prennent quelque espace de temps par chacun pour au moins se souvenir d'eux-memes'). University of Leeds Margaret A...