The arenga in the literature of medieval Spain

263 Pages·2007·0.803 MB·English

by  Michelle Leroux Gravatt

THE ARENGA IN THE LITERATURE OF MEDIEVAL SPAIN

Michelle Leroux Gravatt

A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in
partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the
Department of Romance Languages (Spanish).

Chapel Hill
2007

Approved by

Dr. Frank Domínguez

Dr. Lucia Binotti

Dr. Carmen Hsu

Dr. Rosa Perelmuter

Dr. Ennio Rao
UMI Number: 3257478
Copyright 2007 by
Gravatt, Michelle Leroux
All rights reserved.
UMI Microform3257478
Copyright2007 by ProQuest Information and Learning Company.
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© 2007
Michelle Leroux Gravatt
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ii
ABSTRACT

Michelle Leroux Gravatt: The Arenga in the Literature of Medieval Spain

(Under the direction of Dr. Frank Domínguez)

The military harangue, known in Spanish as the arenga, enables a commander to
motivate his men before combat and can be found from ancient times to present in historical
and literary descriptions of battles. “The Arenga in the Literature of Medieval Spain”
examines the characteristics and role of the military harangue in Spain’s literary texts from a
variety of perspectives: rhetorical appeals, themes, effectiveness, eloquence, structure, and
similarities with other medieval rhetorical arts.
The study first defines what constitutes an arenga and identifies its place within
rhetoric (I. Defining the Harangue: The Arenga in Rhetoric). It then looks at harangues
originating from Antiquity, examining Virgil’s examples and those found in a medieval
Spanish translation of Thucydides (II. Harangues from Classical Texts). Finally, it studies
examples found in Spanish poetry and prose, dedicating two chapters to the most important
harangues written in Spain during the Middle Ages (III. Thirteenth-Century Spanish Literary
Arengas; IV. Fifteenth-Century Spanish Literary Arengas). The concluding chapter (V.
Conclusion) is followed by an Appendix containing the full text of each harangue, a Works
Cited, and a Selected Bibliography for further research.

iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Tables ...........................................................................................................................vi
Introduction ...............................................................................................................................1
Chapter
I. Defining the Harangue: The Arenga in Rhetoric ....................................................... 9
A. The Medieval Council Debate versus the Arenga ............................................. 13
B. Medieval Political Harangues versus the Arenga .............................................. 15
C. Appeals .............................................................................................................. 20
D. Themes .............................................................................................................. 21
E. Successfulness in Terms of Effectiveness and Eloquence ................................. 28
F. Structure ............................................................................................................. 31
II. Harangues from Classical Texts ............................................................................. 37
A. Heredia’s Translation of the History of the Peloponnesian War ....................... 37
B. Virgil’s Aeneid ................................................................................................... 66
III. Thirteenth-Century Spanish Literary Arengas ...................................................... 78
A. Libro de Alexandre ............................................................................................ 78
B. Cantar de Mio Cid ........................................................................................... 115
C. The Poema de Fernán González ..................................................................... 126
IV. Fifteenth-Century Spanish Literary Arengas ...................................................... 151
A. El Victorial ...................................................................................................... 151
B. Crónica de don Álvaro de Luna ...................................................................... 177
C. Cárcel de amor ................................................................................................ 193
V. Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 210
Appendix ................................................................................................................... 215
Works Cited............................................................................................................... 249
Selected Bibliography ............................................................................................... 255

v
List of Tables

Table 1 - Appeals and Themes in Heredia's Translated Harangues ........................................ 65
Table 2 - Appeals and Themes in the Aeneid's Harangues ...................................................... 76
Table 3 - Appeals and Themes in the LdeA's Harangues ...................................................... 113
Table 4 - Appeals and Themes in the CMC's Harangues ...................................................... 126
Table 5 - Appeals and Themes in the PFG's Harangues ....................................................... 149
Table 6 - Appeals and Themes in El Victorial's Harangues .................................................. 176
Table 7 - Appeals and Themes in the CAL's Harangues ....................................................... 193
Table 8 - Appeals and Themes in the Cárcel de amor's Harangue ....................................... 209
vi
Introduction
The military harangue, known in Spanish as the arenga, is the motivational speech
given by a commander before combat.1 As such, it has become a set-piece within literary and
historical depictions of battles from ancient times to present. Yet when most scholars
investigate texts containing harangues, their treatment of the speeches is superficial in respect
to their overall study of the works that contain them. Furthermore, while there have been
studies that have reviewed the harangue in terms of its historical veracity, of how its themes
reveal information about combat psychology, and of how it serves to portray the character of
its speaker, a study of the literary harangue in and of itself is lacking. For example, how do
we classify it in terms of rhetoric? What types of appeals do its speakers employ? What
topics are presented to their audiences, and are certain themes more favored than others in
literary texts? Can we identify if the author considered the harangue to be successful, either
rhetorically or practically? Is there an identifiable structure, and does this correspond to any
of the rhetorical arts of the time period in which it was composed? Are literary harangues
filled with literary devices, or are they simplistic and straight-forward, realistically portraying
a speech made under combat conditions? Finally, and most importantly, what is the
harangue’s importance in literary works, and how does it contribute to understanding the
texts in which it is found?
These questions must be understood before we can fully understand the concept of
the literary harangue. However, as this set-piece spans centuries of world literature, an

1 For the sake of variation, I use the terms arengas, harangues, military speeches, and exhortations to describe
the same phenomenon.
investigation into its various manifestations is far more than can be accomplished in one
dissertation. Thus, I have selected the literature of a time period and country in which wars
and battles provided a natural and abundant inspiration for a variety of texts, that of medieval
Spain.
Hence, this investigation will focus on Spain’s medieval arengas from a variety of
perspectives: rhetorical appeal, theme, effectiveness, eloquence, structure, and the literary
devices employed. Additionally, we will also look at the influence of medieval rhetorical arts
on the arenga, noting similarities as well as distinguishing traits. In order to demonstrate the
versatility of the literary harangue, this study will review examples found in works
representing different genres and different centuries. We will begin by understanding the
tradition that the medieval arenga inherited from Antiquity by studying the rules of classical
rhetoric that might have influenced the composition of the harangue as well as by examining
examples found in Virgil’s Aeneid and Fernández Heredia’s fourteenth century translation of
Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War. From the thirteenth century, we will look at
the arenga in Spanish poetry, analyzing the Libro de Alexandre and the Poema de Fernán
González (examples from the mester de clerecía) as well as the Cantar de Mio Cid (an
example of the mester de juglaría). From the fifteenth century, we will analyze the arenga in
Spanish prose as it is found in the personal chronicles of El Victorial and La crónica de don
Álvaro de Luna as well as in the sentimental novel Cárcel de amor. The findings of these
investigations will then be summarized in the concluding chapter.
*
In Antiquity, the harangue was a staple of all types of texts dealing with war and
warfare. Theodore Burgess notes that there are over forty examples in Greek literature alone
2
and holds that it was “[t]he most distinctive, fully developed, and persistent single type of
speech among historians” (209).2 He explains that the high quantity of the speeches in Greek
historical texts stems not only from the importance of the speech in Greek society but also
from its effectiveness in displaying the author’s rhetorical skills (202). Thus, the arenga was
certainly not a medieval invention, and classical texts that contained harangues, such as the
Aeneid and the History of the Peloponnesian War, were available to influence medieval
readers and writers.
Despite its literary value, when scholars discuss the harangue, they tend do so in
terms of historiography, attempting to identify its role in portraying historical events and
debating whether specific harangues can be considered realistic or fictional. The ancient
Greeks themselves were not immune from this very topic, as Burgess’s study discusses their
perceptions of the exhortation’s role within histories. Additionally, modern scholars, such as
Mogens Herman Hansen and W. Kendrick Pritchett have argued about the realism of several
harangues, with Pritchett believing that some were actually given and Hansen suggesting that
they were later fictional creations written for historiography’s sake, rather than rhetorical
compositions made by generals in battle.
This juxtaposition of history and the harangue is also found within medieval studies.
In her investigation on medieval rhetoric and reality, Ruth Morse discusses the harangue in
the context of medieval historians’ penchant for patterns and the influence of classical works.
She contends that medieval writers often used ancient texts as exemplary models and drew
upon existing topoi and verbal ornaments to reflect rhetorical skill in their pieces. Morse
observes this type of borrowing within harangues, noting that the popular theme of arousing

2 In his investigation Burgess discusses the following: Xenophon, Thucydides, Polybius, Diodorus Siculus, Dio
Cassius, Appian, Arrian, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Herodianus, Theophylactus, and Josephus.
3