Garcilaso de la Vega

Egloga Tercera

    Egloga Tercera 193-208

  1. La blanca Nise no tomó a destajo
  2. de los passados casos la memoria,
  3. y en la lavor de su sotil trabajo
  4. no quiso entretexer antigua istoria;
  5. antes, mostrando de su claro Tajo
  6. en su labor la celebrada gloria,
  7. la figuró en la parte donde'l baña
  8. la más felice tierra de la España.
  9. Pintado el caudaloso río se vía,
  10. que en áspera estrecheza reducida
  11. un monte casi alrededor ceñía,
  12. con ímpetu corriendo y con rüido;
  13. querer cercarlo todo parecía
  14. en su bolver, mas era afán perdido;
  15. dexávase correr en fin derecho,
  16. de lo mucho que avía hecho.

    Egloga Tercera 209-224

  1. Estava puesta en la sublime cumbre
  2. del monte, y desd' allí por él sembrada,
  3. aquella illustre y clara pesadumbre
  4. d'antiguos edificios adornada.
  5. D'allí con agradable mansedumbre
  6. el Tajo va siguiendo su jornada
  7. y regando los campos y arboledas
  8. con artificio de las altas ruedas.
  9. En la hermosa tela se veían,
  10. entretexidas, las silvestres diosas
  11. salir de la espessura, y que venian
  12. todas a la ribera pressurosas,
  13. en el semblante tristes, y traían
  14. cestillos blancos de purpúreas roses,
  15. las quales esparziendo derramavan
  16. 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.