Selected Writings (Dario, Ruben) (71 page)

Régnier, Henri de:
(France; 1864-1936) Régnier was a Romantic poet much influenced by the Symbolists; his subjects tended to be classical, though he worked in
vers libre.
He was married to the daughter of famed Cuban poet (Spanish father, French mother) José María Heredia (1842-1905), a PARNASSIAN.

Renaudot, Eusèbe:
(France; 1648-1720) A distinguished French Orientalist, recognized as possessing more knowledge of Eastern languages than perhaps any other person in France. Friend and sometime collaborator with ANTOINE GALLAND.

Rhodes, [John] Cecil:
(1853-1902) A British imperialist entrepreneur, now remembered as an exploiter of southern Africa’s natural resources and the effective founder of the state of Rhodesia, named after himself. (Southern Rhodesia became an independent African state in 1980 under its current modern name, Zimbabwe, “the big house of stone,” after the ancient city, the Great Zimbabwe. Northern Rhodesia is now Zambia.) Rhodes was born the son of a vicar, and he traveled to South Africa as a young man for the benefit of his health. He soon began making a profit off mining the Kimberley diamond mines, and he formed his own company, De Beers Consolidated Mines, in 1888. Although he remained a leading figure in the politics of southern Africa, especially during the Boer War, he was dogged by ill health throughout his relatively short life. As a result of his will, the Rhodes Scholarships, which enable foreign nationals to study at Oxford, came into being.

Ribera, Jusepe (Giuseppe):
(Spain; 1588-1656) Painter. Though born in Valencia and always signing his works “Jusepe de Ribera, Español,” early on Ribera made his way to Italy—first to Rome, where he was taken in by a cardinal who saw him copying the frescos on a palace wall. Later, he went to Caravaggio, an eminently naturalist painter and part of the “Tenebrosi” or Shadow-Painters. When Caravaggio died in 1606, Ribera went to Parma and painted under the influence of Correggio until he finally ended up in Naples, where he spent the rest of his life. Throughout this time he was called
Lo Spagnoletto,
or “Little Spaniard.” His work was extremely popular and sought-after, and he became court painter to the Spanish viceroy; in 1644, he was knighted by the pope.

Robida, Albert:
(France, 1848-1926) Robida was a novelist and illustrator, for more than a decade editor of the popular magazine
La Caricature.
His amusing, satirical drawings reflected
la belle époque,
but he was best known for three futuristic novels in which he, like Jules Verne, predicted what life would be like in the twentieth century. In the case of
Vieux Paris,
however, it is Robida’s view of the past that counts: In 1900, for the Universal Exposition in Paris, he designed and oversaw the construction of “Old Paris” on the banks of the Seine, as Darío describes it here.

Rodó, José Enrique:
(Uruguay; 1871-1917) One of Uruguay’s most important essayists and journalists at the turn of the century, Rodó produced several influential works. Two of these are
Ariel,
which was written just after the Spanish-American War of 1898 and celebrated the spirit-life of Ariel (the Hispanic world) over the materialism of Caliban (the United States), and an essay/biography on Darío in 1899.

Rodrigo:
(1040-1099) Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, Castilian military leader and national hero, also known as El Cid. His exploits against the Moors have been immortalized in a famous poem,
El Cantar de Mio Cid.

Roosevelt, Theodore:
(1858-1919) Twenty-sixth president of the United States. His military exploits in Mexico and Cuba led to his success in politics.

Rueda [Santos], Salvador:
(Spain; 1857-1933) A young poet befriended by Darío. Though almost illiterate until the age of eighteen, Rueda later worked with NÚÑEZ DE ARCE at a Madrid newspaper. His first book prefigures some of Darío’s
modernista
innovations, and his style is free and exuberant. Darío wrote the preface to an 1893 volume of his poetry.
Rusiñol [i Prats], Santiago:
(Catalonia, Spain; 1861-1931) Catalonian watercolorist and painter, very influential in the Art Nouveau and
modernista
movement in Spain, both in its beginnings and flowering and in its defense against
Noucentisme,
which opposed
modernista
aesthetics. Like Monet with Giverny, Rusiñol is associated with the town of Sitges, which he loved for its light and landscapes. Rusiñol was also a very well-received poet, dramatist, and essayist-critic.

Ruysbroeck, Jan van (
also
Jean, John;
called
the admirable):
(Belgium; 1293-1381) Mystic, author of
Ornement des Noces Spirituelles
(
The Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage
; English translation
Spiritual Espousals
), and of “The Seven Steps of the Ladder of Spiritual Love.” The
Espousals
were “discovered” and translated by famed German writer Maurice MAETERLINCK in 1891, which is why so many authors of the period quote this rather obscure Flemish mystic. Beatified 1908.

Saavedra Fajardo, Diego de:
(Spain; 1584-1648) Political writer and diplomat. Many of his writings have disappeared, but of those remaining, most famous is perhaps
Idea of a Christian Political Prince in One Hundred Emblems,
a Christian reply to Machiavelli. His style is of a “Senecan simplicity.”

Sabuco, Oliva:
(Spain; 1562-?) Health worker who dedicated her life to exploring the relationship between emotional and physical health. In 1587, Sabuco published “New Philosophy of Human Nature Not Known and Not Attained by the Ancient Philosophers, Which Improves Human Life and Health.” She always urged physicians to treat the whole person: body, mind, and soul. Her work was allegedly plagiarized by later writers who claimed credit for it.

Sade, Donatien Alphone François, comte de (Marquis de Sade):
(France; 1740-1814) Educated by the Jesuits, Sade went into the French army and fought in the Seven Years’ War. After his marriage at twenty-three, the rest of his life was filled with violent scandals over his sexual conduct and with feuds, which caused him to spend some thirty years, off and on, in prison. Many of his works, which are of pornographic and blasphemous subject matter, were written in prison; titles remembered today include
Justine
and
120 Days of Sodom.
Many of his manuscripts were burned by the government. Sade is widely viewed today as a precursor of Nietzsche and Existentialism, and he is considered to warrant a high place in French literature.

Sáenz Peña, Roque:
(Argentina; 1851-1914) Sáenz Peña was a statesman and served one term (1910-14) as president of the Republic of Argentina. He was committed to electoral reform, and thanks to his work the Radicals, led by Hipólito Irigoyen, were elected to office to replace the landowning oligarchs who had theretofore run the country. In 1888 he was one of Argentina’s delegates to the Congress on Private International Law in Montevideo, and in 1889-90 he spoke before the delegates of the First Pan-American Congress in Washington, declaring Argentina’s opposition to U.S. domination of the hemisphere (through the paternalism of the Monroe Doctrine) and staking out Argentina’s place as an important bridge between the Old World and the New. In 1898, he spoke out strongly against U.S. aggression in the Spanish-American War and reiterated his accusations of U.S. hypocrisy as manifested in the “altruism” of the Monroe Doctrine.

Saint-Victor, Paul Bins, comte de:
(1827-1881) French writer dedicated mostly to journalism; his style was ornate, “beyond even that of Théophile Gautier,” according to one encyclopedia. (He refused to use his title, as not in keeping with his democratic principles.)

Salomé:
Israelite princess who was persuaded by her mother, HERODIAS, to dance before King HEROD in seven transparent veils for the head of John the Baptist. Painted by many great masters, she has also inspired drama, opera, and cinema.

Samson:
Israelite judge and warrior, noted for his great strength. Betrayed by the infamous Philistine Delilah, who cut his hair.

Sarcey, Francisque:
(France; 1827-1899) Journalist and drama critic, very important tastemaker for the stage in late-nineteenth-century Paris.

Sargent, John Singer:
(American; 1836-1925) Sargent, the
Penguin Dictionary of Art and Artists
tells us, was “a virtuoso portrait painter who settled in London and painted High Society in Edwardian and Georgian times. He was born in Italy of American expatriate parents and was trained in Florence and Paris. . . . [He] is best known for his portraits and for his brilliant watercolours. . . . In 1880 he visited Spain, and the technical skill and simple colour schemes of most of his portraits reflect VELÁZQUEZ, seen through the eyes of Manet and Courbet.”

Saturn:
Roman god of agriculture, and a Numen. The festival of the Saturnalia, on December 17, was celebrated in his honor. No punishment of criminals took place during the days of this festival, gifts were exchanged, and slaves were served by their masters.

Secession, Vienna Secession:
There were several groups of German and Austrian Secessionists in the late nineteenth century, groups of artists who resigned from established academic bodies in order to forward the aims of a modernist (often Impressionist) aesthetic. The artists of the Vienna Secession sought to revitalize (especially Austrian) art through exchanges with foreign colleagues and by promoting a more organic integration of the fine and applied arts. This latter goal found ultimate flowering in the Wiener Werkstätte, a design collective.

Sheba:
The Queen of Sheba, from the ancient Arabian kingdom of Saba (near what is now Yemen), which flourished from 950-115 B.C. She visited the Israelite King Solomon to partake of his legendary wisdom. Nine months and five days after her last night in Jerusalem, the queen gave birth to a son—Menelik, who founded Ethiopia’s Solomonic dynasty, and reputedly stole the Ark of the Covenant from Solomon’s court.

Sicardi, Francisco A:
(Argentina; 1865-1927) Distinguished physician and writer, author of
Libro extraño
(
Strange Book
), to which Darío is undoubtedly referring. Author of other works as well, but most remembered in Argentina for his work in cholera.

Silenus:
“A demi-god who became the nurse, the preceptor, and the attendant of the god Bacchus. . . . Silenus is generally represented as a fat, jolly old man, riding on an ass, crowned with flowers, and always intoxicated” (Lemprière).

Silvestre, [Paul] Armand:
(France; 1837-1901) A poet considered to be one of the PARNASSIANS, Silvestre also produced a considerable body of journalism as well as stories and a couple of novels, as well as three volumes of art criticism on the nude.

spes:
Latin word for hope.

Sporus (
see also
Nero):
A young man, or perhaps really a boy, who took Nero’s fancy. Roman historian SUETONIUS tells us that Nero “castrated the boy Sporus and actually tried to make a woman of him; and he married him with all the usual ceremonies, including a dowry and a bridal veil, took him to his house attended by a great throng, and treated him as his wife. And the witty jest that someone made is still current, that it would have been well for the world if Nero’s father Domitius had had that kind of wife. This Sporus, decked out with the finery of the empresses and riding in a litter, he took with him to the assizes and marts of Greece, and later at Rome through the Street of the Images, fondly kissing him from time to time.”

Stirner, Max:
(
nom de plume
of Johann Kaspar Schmidt; Germany; 1806-1856) Philosopher and social philosopher, the first to translate Adam Smith’s
The Wealth of Nations
into German. Stirner was often branded a “radical,” and his philosophy did in fact espouse anarchism (although he denied this). As a proponent of what he termed the Egoist philosophy, he is considered, also, one of the precursors of Existentialism, and he believed that all religions and ideologies are based on superstition (with nationalism, statism, liberalism, socialism, communism, and humanism explicitly included in this set of superstitions).

Strongbow:
The name by which Richard fitz Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Pembroke (1130-1176), was known. The men of the de Clare family of Ireland were known for their prowess with an unusually long, strong bow; hence the name. Basically a noble warrior during the mid-twelfth century, during what is known as the “chaos” in Ireland stemming from disputes over ascendants to the throne.

Suetonius:
(Rome; ?75-?150 A.D.) Full name Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus; Roman biographer and historian, best known for his
Lives of the Caesars,
or
The Twelve Caesars,
although
Famous Men
and
The Lives of the Poets
have also come down to modern days; unfortunately lost are such volumes as
Lives of Famous Whores, Greek Games, Roman Dress, The Physical Defects of Man,
etc. It is Suetonius’ life of NERO (
q.v.
) that gives the story of Sporus.

Tailhade, Laurent:
(France; 1854-1919) Born into the French bourgeoisie, Tailhade soon broke with that ethos and moved to Paris, where he joined the literary and artistic bohemia. Though he published a book of poems in 1880, he is most famous for his polemical anarchism; after an assassination attempt that left several bystanders dead, he is quoted, for example, as saying “What do the victims matter, if the gesture was grand!” After losing an eye in the bombing of a restaurant in which he happened to be eating, he became even more radical and libertarian. At one point he was tried and sent to prison for a year for writing an “incitement to murder,” an article against the Czar of Russia. Strangely, in 1905 he abandoned anarchism and became a rabid nationalist. In literary terms, he is remembered as the translator of PETRONIUS’
Satyricon
and a novel, “The Black Idol,” on opium. He himself was an opium addict.