Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

SAN LORENZO

DEL ESCORIAL.

Como quando en la octava maravilla
Del grande Escorial tan celebrado
Se mueve el coro, donde el arte bri la,
Al furioso uracan desenenfrado:
Tiembla el panteon, la altisima capilla,
Y estupendo cimborio agigantado;
Por los claustros bramando el ayre zumba,
Y el portico magnifico retumba.

MORATIN, NAVES DE CORTES.

C'etait San-Lorenzo del Escorial, ce bizarre et gigantesque monument du pouvoir, de la dévotion, peut-être des terreurs de Philippe II. *** Le vaste édifice n'annonce point à l'œil ses dimensions colossales: au lieu d'être tournée du côté de la vaste plaine, celui par lequel arrive le voyageur, la façade disparaît pressée contre les montagnes; l'œuvre de l'homme est écrasée par l'œuvre de la nature; des détails seuls naît l'étonnement dû à l'ensemble. En voyant l'espace se prolonger sans fin, je crus parcourir une ville, un monde de granit. La beauté de la structure, l'étendue de l'ouvrage et la puissance du fondateur se révélèrent à moi tout entières. Je compris que trente années eussent à peine suffi à l'exécution de ce prodige, mais ce fut pour déplorer l'usage de tant d'efforts. Un cloître sombre et infect, un collége et un séminaire abandonnés, une maison royale qu'entoure une nature affreuse, lieu de plaisance qui ne peut convenir qu'à des morts, voilà ce que la monarchie espagnole, aux jours de sa splendeur, travaillait toute entière à créer. Cent ans plus tard, un de vos rois employait aussi l'or de ses peuples à tailler de la pierre et du marbre; mais Louis faisait Versailles. Cette fastueuse demeure allait servir de rendez-vous aux plaisirs d'une haute civilisation, aux jouissances des arts, de l'élégance, de la volupté ! *** Hélas! avec sa pompe stérile, son deuil et sa solitude, avec ses moines et son Panthéon funéraire, San-Lorenzo ressemble à Versailles comme notre Espagne à votre France.

SALVANDY,

SAN LORENZO.

THE Emperor Charles of Spain, after controlling for so many years the destinies of Europe and America, voluntarily abdicated his double crown to mortify his ambition in the monastery of Yuste. On bidding adieu to the world, he enjoined it on his son and successor in Spain, to erect a fitting sepulchre to receive the mortal remains of himself and of the Empress. The care of this duty occupied, at an early period, the thoughts of Philip, and served to strengthen a resolution, which other circumstances had led him to conceive. On the festival of San Lorenzo, the arms of Philip, under the conduct of the Duke of Savoy, achieved a memorable victory over the French near Saint Quentin, in the north of France, (Aug. 10th, 1557.) Although Philip's victory was followed by no important results, yet it was unquestionably one of the most brilliant of the age. It filled all France with consternation and mourning. In the great number of distinguished men lost by the French, in the

suddenness and fatal effects of their rout, as well as in the imprudent conduct of the commander in chief, it strikingly resembled, as Robertson justly observes, the dreadful days of Crecy and Agincourt: and the gallant Constable de Montmorency, who commanded, vainly endeavored to throw away his life in the engagement, in order to wipe out the sense of his misconduct. The exultation of the Spaniards was in proportion to the sorrow of the French. In memory of the victory, Philip vowed to erect a church and monastery to the honor of the blessed martyr San Lorenzo, in whose day it had been gained, and to whose miraculous favor he ascribed the success of his arms. It was the accomplishment of these two objects, the providing of a place of sepulture for the royal family and the discharge of his vow, which induced the foundation of San Lorenzo el Real.

In the selection of a site for the edifice, Philip was influenced by other considerations. He desired a place of retirement, a country palace, where, secluded from the bustle and pomp of the court, he might indulge in those dark and sombre reflections, those mingled emotions of pride and superstition, which had already come to characterize his temper. His eyes were first directed to the solitudes of the mountains of Guisando; and afterwards to the region called Real de Manzanares, at the foot of the elevation on which Madrid stands; but not finding a satisfactory site in either of these localities, he

[ocr errors]
« AnteriorContinuar »