On December 22, the 150th anniversary of the death of the poet Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer was celebrated. considered the second most widely read Spanish classical author after Cervantes. And the anniversary coincides with the publication in Spain of a demystifying biography about the character, by Professor Joan Estruch Tobella, entitled Becquer. Life and time.
Figure of Gustavo Adolfo Becquer (Seville, 1836-Madrid, 1870) remains for a large part of the public wrapped in an aura of romance, fostered by the popularity of his rhymes (“The dark swallows will return / their nests to hang on your balcony / (…)”) and by the image that emerges from the portrait that his brother made of him, and that for years featured in the hundred pesetas banknotes. Bohemian, outcast dreamer, unhappy in love, author of corny poems … all that has been said about him, but he has also been credited with the paternity of the satirical album The Bourbons in ball , it has been said that he died of syphilis or that he lived in absolute poverty.
Joan Estruch not only traces in the documentation of archives, personal memories and the press but also contextualizes the time in which he lived to better understand the character, destroy topics and understand why he has been considered a renovator of poetry, admired by such authors. diverse as Rubén Darío, Juan Ramón Jiménez or Luis Cernuda.
A portrait of Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer. Photo La Vanguardia
Some difficult loves
Little is known of Gustavo’s adolescent love affairs. At the age of 16, he chases a girl he has seen from afar for four days on the street. It is an idealized version, like the one referring to the departure of another girl: “And you leave, and you leave the flowery banks of Betis, and in painful tears you leave those who love you, those who like your sight, of the pleasant treatment? ”. Youthful platonic love is sometimes complemented by a more vulgar and direct style. “Oh cunt among the chosen pussies, / wig among wigs well curled, / who would put the instrument upright / and stop you fucking tired.”
His great love has been said to be the beautiful opera singer Julia Espín, who never became a prima donna, daughter of a modest musician and creator of zarzuelas. It seems rather that It was an unrequited love. Julio Nombela, writer of serial novels, published a romantic version according to which Gustavo met Julia when he was walking down the street where she lived and saw her leaning out on the balcony. A scene that recalls the Platonic encounters of Petrarca and Laura or of Dante and Beatrice but which, according to the biographer, is very difficult to believe. Among other things because it was very frowned upon for a woman to show her whole body out onto the balcony and even more so when the street where the Espins lived had a bad reputation for its brothels. Despite some drawings and poems that he dedicated to her, there are no great examples of this love, and the haughty Julia only thought about her career as a singer. Years after Gustavo’s death, He called him a “dirty man.”
Julia Espín, opera singer, designated as the great love of Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer. Photo La Vanguardia
The poet chose Casta Esteban Navarro as his wife, a village girl, very different from the sophisticated Julia, and they married on May 19, 1861 after a short courtship. She was the daughter of a surgeon who also introduced himself as a specialist in venereal diseases and the creator of an ointment that served as a hair growth and cured migraines. A Casta, scholars have not treated her well, from unpleasant to unfaithful woman, but in any case it seems that she was an uncomfortable person, with proto-feminist ideals, who broke with the model of submission. She separated from her husband, they shared custody of the three children and after Gustavo’s death she remarried and even wrote a book.
From correspondent to censor of novels
In 1861 Gustavo spent the summer months in the Baños Nuevos de Fitero (Navarra), in what was probably his honeymoon with Casta. There he documented two of his legends and today this establishment is called Hotel Bécquer. Almost three years later he made another stay in the monastery of Veruela (Zaragoza), for therapeutic purposes. There he also met his brother Valeriano, a painter, and his family. He made a series of drawings au plein air while Gustavo wrote some literary letters from which the book emerged From my cell.
In September 1864, General Narvaez returned to power and Becquer, who belongs to the moderate Party, will be rewarded with the address of the newspaper The Contemporary, where he will act as a parliamentary chronicler. His friendship with the minister Luis González Bravo will allow him to have access to the most select festivals and shortly afterwards he will achieve the position of censor of novels and of the serials published by the newspapers. Anyway, political instability will only get to practice for six months. His brother Valeriano also benefited and temporarily obtained a pension in exchange for delivering two paintings of customs each year to the National Museum fund.
‘The Bourbons in ball’
The Revolution of September 1868 also meant the rise of pornographic satire focused on showing the sexual scandals of Isabel de Borbón’s court, which were already in the public domain. Technical advances in photography and printmaking made it easier the profusion of obscene prints. And in that context you have to place the album The Bourbons in ball, made up of more than a hundred watercolors with republican and anti-clerical content, with pornographic cartoons mocking the queen, Father Claret, General Prim, González Bravo and others, signed with the pseudonym SEM.
Fragment of the watercolors that are part of the album “Los Borbones en bola”. Photo La Vanguardia
This album was not published until the recent 1991 and initially it was attributed to the Bécquer brothers because after the death of the poet the satirical republican newspaper Gil Blas He gave them the pseudonym SEM. Estruch categorically rejects it among other things because of the conservatism of the two brothers. In his opinion, it is more likely that the author was the cartoonist Francisco Ortego, of which there is at least one plate equal to the album that bears his signature.
A cold stroke? Respiratory problems? Syphilis?
Julio Nombela, Gustavo’s friend, attributes his death to the cold wave and snowfall that shook Madrid at the end of 1870 and specifically to the consequences of a bus trip. But everything indicates that he died after a process of progressive worsening of difficult diagnosis, which points to chronic respiratory problems. That would explain his previous stays in spas and his sea baths. Another mythological factor has been the coincidence of his death with an eclipse of the sun, but according to the author, that day Madrid was cloudy and could not be seen.
The most serious argument against this hypothesis is rhyme 55 of the Book of sparrows which was censored in a first edition: “A woman has poisoned my soul, / another woman has poisoned my body.” It could be a confession to a venereal disease, raising the debate about the extent to which Rhymes they are or are not a kind of autobiographical diary.
The vanguard
Pc
source https://pledgetimes.com/unlucky-in-love-sick-and-poor-a-book-demystifies-the-romantic-aura-of-gustavo-adolfo-becquer/
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