Jewish Literature and Other Essays Part 8

Another of Maimonides' opponents was the physician Judah Alfachar, who bore the hereditary t.i.tle _Prince_. The following pasquinade is attributed to him:

"Forgive, O Amram's son, nor deem it crime, That he, deception's master, bears thy name.

_Nabi_ we call the prophet of truths sublime, Like him of Ba'al, who doth the truth defame."

Maimonides, in his supposed reply to the Prince, played upon the word _Chamor_, the Hebrew word for _a.s.s_, the name of a Hivite prince mentioned in the Bible:

"High rank, I wot, we proudly claim When sprung from n.o.ble ancestor; Henceforth my mule a _prince_ I'll name Since once a prince was called _Chamor_."

It seems altogether certain that this polemic rhyming is the fabrication of a later day, for we know that the controversies about Maimonides'

opinions in Spain and Provence broke out only after his death, when his chief work had spread far and wide in its Hebrew translation. The following stanza pa.s.sed from mouth to mouth in northern France:

"Be silent, 'Guide,' from further speech refrain!

Thus truth to us was never brought.

Accursed who says that Holy Writ's a trope, And idle dreams what prophets taught."

Whereupon the Provencals returned:

"Thou fool, I pray thou wilt forbear, Nor enter on this consecrated ground.

Or trope, or truth--or vision fair, Or only dream--for thee 'tis too profound."

The homage paid to Maimonides' memory in many instances produced most extravagant poetry. The following high-flown lines, outraging the canons of good taste recognized in Hebrew poetry, are supposed to be his epitaph:

"Here lies a man, yet not a man, And if a man, conceived by angels, By human mother only born to light; Perhaps himself a spirit pure-- Not child by man and woman fostered-- From G.o.d above an emanation bright."

Such hyperbole naturally challenged opposition, and Maimonides'

opponents did not hesitate to give voice to their deep indignation, as in the following:

"Alas! that man should dare To say, with reckless air, That Holy Scripture's but a dream of night; That all we read therein Has truly never been, Is naught but sign of meaning recondite.

And when G.o.d's wondrous deeds The haughty scorner reads, Contemptuous he cries, 'I trust my sight.'"

A cessation of hostilities came only in the fourteenth century. The "Guide" was then given its due meed of appreciation by the Jews. Later, Maimonides' memory was held in unbounded reverence, and to-day his "Guide of the Perplexed" is a manual of religious philosophy treasured by Judaism.

If we wish once more before parting from this earnest, n.o.ble thinker to review his work and att.i.tude, we can best do it by applying to them the standard furnished by his own reply to all adverse critics of his writings: "In brief, such is my disposition. When a thought fills my mind, though I be able to express it so that only a single man among ten thousand, a thinker, is satisfied and elevated by it, while the common crowd condemns it as absurd, I boldly and frankly speak the word that enlightens the wise, never fearing the censure of the ignorant herd."

This was Maimonides--he of pure thought, of n.o.ble purpose; imbued with enthusiasm for his faith, with love for science; ruled by the loftiest moral principles; full of disinterested love and the milk of human kindness in his intercourse with those of other faiths and other views; an eagle-eyed thinker, in whom were focused and harmoniously blended the last rays of the declining sun of Arabic-Jewish-Spanish culture.

JEWISH TROUBADOURS AND MINNESINGERS

A great tournament at the court of Pedro I.! Deafening fanfares invite courtiers and cavaliers to partic.i.p.ate in the festivities. In the brilliant sunshine gleam the lances of the knights, glitter the spears of the hidalgos. Gallant paladins escort black-eyed beauties to the elevated balcony, on which, upon a high-raised throne, under a gilded canopy, surrounded by courtiers, sit Blanche de Bourbon and her ill.u.s.trious lord Dom Pedro, with Dona Maria de Padilla, the lady of his choice, at his left. Three times the trumpets have sounded, announcing the approach of the troubadours gathered from all parts of Castile to compete with one another in song. Behold! a venerable old man, with silvery white beard flowing down upon his breast, seeks to extricate himself from the crowd. With admiring gaze the people respectfully make way, and enthusiastically greet him: "Rabbi Don Santo! Rabbi Don Santo!"

The troubadour makes a low obeisance before the throne. Dom Pedro nods encouragement, Maria de Padilla smiles graciously, only Dona Blanca's pallid face remains immobile. The h.o.a.ry bard begins his song:[41]

"My n.o.ble king and mighty lord, A discourse hear most true; 'Tis Santob brings your Grace the word, Of Carrion's town the Jew.

In plainest verse my thought I tell, With gloss and moral free, Drawn from Philosophy's pure well, As onward you may see."[42]

A murmur of approval runs through the crowd; grandees and hidalgos press closer to listen. In well-turned verse, fraught with worldly-wise lessons, and indifferent whether his hortations meet with praise or with censure, the poet continues to pour out words of counsel and moral teachings, alike for king, n.o.bles, and people.

Who is this Rabbi Don Santob? We know very little about him, yet, with the help of "bright-eyed fancy," enough to paint his picture. The real name of this Jew from Carrion de los Condes, a city of northern Spain, who lived under Alfonso XI and Peter the Cruel, was, of course, not Santob, but Shem-Tob. Under Alfonso the intellectual life of Spain developed to a considerable degree, and in Spain, as almost everywhere, we find Jews in sympathy with the first intellectual strivings of the nation. They have a share in the development of all Romance languages and literatures. Ibn Alfange, a Moorish Jew, after his conversion a high official, wrote the first "Chronicle of the Cid," the oldest source of the oft-repeated biography, thus furnishing material to subsequent Spanish poets and historians. Valentin Barruchius (Baruch), of Toledo, composed, probably in the twelfth century, in pure, choice Latin, the romance _Comte Lyonnais, Pala.n.u.s_, which spread all over Europe, affording modern poets subject-matter for great tragedies, and forming the groundwork for one of the cla.s.sics of Spanish literature. A little later, Petrus Alphonsus (Moses Sephardi) wrote his _Disciplina Clericalis_, the first collection of tales in the Oriental manner, the model of all future collections of the kind.

Three of the most important works of Spanish literature, then, are products of Jewish authorship. This fact prepares the student to find a Jew among the Castilian troubadours of the fourteenth century, the period of greatest literary activity. The Jewish spirit was by no means antagonistic to the poetry of the Provencal troubadours. In his didactic poem, _Chotham Tochnith_ ("The Seal of Perfection," together with "The Flaming Sword"), Abraham Bedersi, that is, of Beziers (1305), challenges his co-religionists to a poetic combat. He details the rules of the tournament, and it is evident that he is well acquainted with all the minutiae of the _jeu parti_ and the _tenso_ (song of dispute) of the Provencal singers, and would willingly imitate their _sirventes_ (moral and political song). His plaint over the decadence of poetry among the Jews is characteristic: "Where now are the marvels of Hebrew poetry?

Mayhap thou'lt find them in the Provencal or Romance. Aye, in Folquet's verses is manna, and from the lips of Cardinal is wafted the perfume of crocus and nard"--Folquet de Lunel and Peire Cardinal being the last great representatives of Provencal troubadour poetry. Later on, neo-Hebraic poets again show acquaintance with the regulations governing song-combats and courts of love. Pious Bible exegetes, like Samuel ben Mer, do not disdain to speak of the _partimens_ of the troubadours, "in which lovers talk to each other, and by turns take up the discourse."

One of his school, a _Tossafist_, goes so far as to press into service the day's fashion in explaining the meaning of a verse in the "Song of Songs": "To this day lovers treasure their mistress' locks as love-tokens." It seems, too, that Provencal romances were heard, and their great poets welcomed, in the houses of Jews, who did not scruple occasionally to use their melodies in the synagogue service.

National customs, then, took root in Israel; but that Jewish elements should have become incorporated into Spanish literature is more remarkable, may, indeed, be called marvellous. Yet, from one point of view, it is not astonishing. The whole of mediaeval Spanish literature is nothing more than the handmaiden of Christianity. Spanish poetry is completely dominated by Catholicism; it is in reality only an expression of reverence for Christian inst.i.tutions. An extreme naturally induces a counter-current; so here, by the side of rigid orthodoxy, we meet with lat.i.tudinarianism and secular delight in the good things of life. For instance, that jolly rogue, the archpriest of Hita, by way of relaxation from the tenseness of church discipline, takes to composing _dansas_ and _baladas_ for the rich Jewish bankers of his town. He and his contemporaries have much to say about Jewish generosity--unfortunately, much, too, about Jewish wealth and pomp. Jewish women, a Jewish chronicler relates, are tricked out with finery, as "sumptuously as the pope's mules." It goes without saying that, along with these accounts, we have frequent wailing about defection from the faith and neglect of the Law. Old Akiba is right: "History repeats itself!" ("_Es ist alles schon einmal da gewesen!_").

Such were the times of Santob de Carrion. Our first information about him comes from the Marquis de Santillana, one of the early patrons and leaders of Spanish literature. He says, "In my grandfather's time there was a Jew, Rabbi Santob, who wrote many excellent things, among them _Proverbios Morales_ (Moral Proverbs), truly commendable in spirit. A great troubadour, he ranks among the most celebrated poets of Spain."

Despite this high praise, the marquis feels constrained to apologize for having quoted a pa.s.sage from Santob's work. His praise is endorsed by the critics. It is commonly conceded that his _Consejos y Doc.u.mentos al Rey Dom Pedro_ ("Counsel and Instruction to King Dom Pedro"), consisting of six hundred and twenty-eight romances, deserves a place among the best creations of Castilian poetry, which, in form and substance, owes not a little to Rabbi Santob. A valuable ma.n.u.script at the Escurial in Madrid contains his _Consejos_ and two other works, _La Doctrina Christiana_ and _Dansa General_. A careless copyist called the whole collection "Rabbi Santob's Book," so giving rise to the mistake of Spanish critics, who believe that Rabbi Santob, indisputably the author of _Consejos_, became a convert to Christianity, and wrote, after his conversion, the didactic poem on doctrinal Christianity, and perhaps also the first "Dance of Death."[43] It was reserved for the acuteness of German criticism to expose the error of this hypothesis. Of the three works, only _Consejos_ belongs to Rabbi Santob, the others were accidentally bound with it. In pa.s.sing, the interesting circ.u.mstance may be noted that in the first "Dance of Death" a bearded rabbi (_Rabbi barbudo_) dances toward the universal goal between a priest and an usurer. Santob de Carrion remained a Jew. His _consejos_, written when he was advanced in age, are pervaded by loyalty to his king, but no less to his faith, which he openly professed at the royal court, and whose spiritual treasures he adroitly turned to poetic uses.

Santob, it is interesting to observe, was not a writer of erotic poetry.

He composed poems on moral subjects only, social satires and denunciations of vice. Such are the _consejos_. It is in his capacity as a preacher of morality that Santob is to be cla.s.sed among troubadours.

First he addressed himself, with becoming deference, to the king, leading him to consider G.o.d's omnipotence:

"As great, 'twixt heav'n and earth the s.p.a.ce-- That ether pure and blue-- So great is G.o.d's forgiving grace Your sins to lift from you.

And with His vast and wondrous might He does His deeds of power; But yours are puny in His sight, For strength is not man's dower."

At that time it required more than ordinary courage to address a king in this fashion; but Santob was old and poor, and having nothing to lose, could risk losing everything. A democratic strain runs through his verses; he delights in aiming his satires at the rich, the high-born, and the powerful, and takes pride in his poverty and his fame as a poet:

"I will not have you think me less Than others of my faith, Who live on a generous king's largess, Forsworn at every breath.

And if you deem my teachings true, Reject them not with hate, Because a minstrel sings to you Who's not of knight's estate.

The fragrant, waving reed grows tall From feeble root and thin, And uncouth worms that lowly crawl Most l.u.s.trous silk do spin.

Because beside a thorn it grows The rose is not less fair; Though wine from gnarled branches flows, 'Tis sweet beyond compare.

The goshawk, know, can soar on high, Yet low he nests his brood.

A Jew true precepts doth apply, Are they therefore less good?

Some Jews there are with slavish mind Who fear, are mute, and meek.

My soul to truth is so inclined That all I feel I speak.

There often comes a meaning home Through simple verse and plain, While in the heavy, bulky tome We find of truth no grain.

Full oft a man with furrowed front, Whom grief hath rendered grave, Whose views of life are honest, blunt, Both fool is called and knave."

It is surely not unwarranted to a.s.sume that from these confessions the data of Santob's biography may be gathered.

Now as to Santob's relation to Judaism. Doubtless he was a faithful Jew, for the views of life and the world laid down in his poems rest on the Bible, the Talmud, and the Midrash. With the fearlessness of conviction he meets the king and the people, denouncing the follies of both. Some of his romances sound precisely like stories from the Haggada, so skilfully does he clothe his counsel in the gnomic style of the Bible and the Talmud. This characteristic is particularly well shown in his verses on friendship, into which he has woven the phraseology of the Proverbs:

"What treasure greater than a friend Who close to us hath grown?

Blind fate no bitt'rer lot can send Than bid us walk alone.

For solitude doth cause a dearth Of fruitful, blessed thought.