Garcilaso de la Vega
Egloga Tercera
Egloga Tercera 193-208
- La blanca Nise no tomó a destajo
- de los passados casos la memoria,
- y en la lavor de su sotil trabajo
- no quiso entretexer antigua istoria;
- antes, mostrando de su claro Tajo
- en su labor la celebrada gloria,
- la figuró en la parte donde'l baña
- la más felice tierra de la España.
- Pintado el caudaloso río se vía,
- que en áspera estrecheza reducida
- un monte casi alrededor ceñía,
- con ímpetu corriendo y con rüido;
- querer cercarlo todo parecía
- en su bolver, mas era afán perdido;
- dexávase correr en fin derecho,
- de lo mucho que avía hecho.
Egloga Tercera 209-224
- Estava puesta en la sublime cumbre
- del monte, y desd' allí por él sembrada,
- aquella illustre y clara pesadumbre
- d'antiguos edificios adornada.
- D'allí con agradable mansedumbre
- el Tajo va siguiendo su jornada
- y regando los campos y arboledas
- con artificio de las altas ruedas.
- En la hermosa tela se veían,
- entretexidas, las silvestres diosas
- salir de la espessura, y que venian
- todas a la ribera pressurosas,
- en el semblante tristes, y traían
- cestillos blancos de purpúreas roses,
- las quales esparziendo derramavan
- sobre una nympha muerta que lloravan.
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Notes
- ·Nise The ecphrasis of the
fourth tapestry is much longer than the others, though its story is
omitted. It is as if it is the climax to which the others have been
leading, the final unfolding of the psychodrama of love and death.
And this final celebration refers to Garcilaso, to his own mythic
world of Elisa and Nemoroso.
- ·a destajo The phrase was
criticised by Herrera in his 1580 edition of Garcilaso for being
unworthy of Garcilaso
, perhaps because it seems to refer to
piecework, i.e. to how weavers were paid, or contracted. The meaning
would be that Nise did not take on the job of weaving ancient
story. - ·la más felice tierra de la
España The line refers to Toledo, Garcilaso's ancestral home. There is
a sense of art repeating art, since the eclogue is set by the river
Tajo as it flows past Toledo, and in the tapestry the setting is the
Tagus flowing past Toledo. This is part of the stilling effect which
Garcilaso seems to achieve.
- ·un monte casi alrededor
ceñía This description of the river recalls the
topography of Toledo, seated on the precipitous hill overlooking the
deep gorge of the Tagus. See El Greco's famous
painting, later of course than Garcilaso's verbal
description.
- ·altas ruedas Pastoral is not
necessarily anti-technological as this reference shows to the
sluices and dams in the river which the architect Juanelo had, at
the beginning of the century, used to raise water from the river:
these were known as el artificio de Juanelo.
- ·cestillos blancos de purpúreas
rosas, In this scene of mourning we note a further instance
of how tradition and novelty are interwoven; the pastoral practice
of scattering flowers over the dead or their grave recalls Virgil
(Bucolics, V, 40). But the white baskets come from
Sannazzaro:
le convicine ninfe vengono ora tutte con canistri
bianchissimi de fiori...
Arcadia, V, 32.