User:Rine02lessthan3/Amarilis (poet)

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Corrected the century when Amarilis lived from late 16th to early 17th; her epistle is dated 1619.

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Amarilis was a pseudonymous poet from Peru who lived sometime in the early 17th century. She is known from a single poem in the form of an epístola, or epistle, titled Amarilis a Belardo. The title, which translates to Amarilis to Belardo in English, refers to Amarilis' polite manner of addressing "Belardo," whose true identity is known as Spanish playwright Lope de Vega. De Vega published this epistle in in La Filomena (1621), which is a book of lyrical poems and epic poetry including both Amarilis' epistle and his response to it. While Lope de Vega defends himself from libel in the second half of La Filomena, the book can also be regarded as a look into the playwright's more personal life. Amarilis a Belardo is lengthy and conveys Amarilis' feelings of isolation due to her responsibilities as a nun, as well as her frustrations from being in Peru instead of Spain. Her identity remains a mystery, with some historians even doubting she ever existed, but Amarilis is generally believed to have been a woman.

Life and Identity

While Amarilis wrote "Amarilis a Belardo" in 1619, little is known about her date of birth. All that could be said about her age range was that she wrote her epistle as a young woman. It was likely that she was a nun living in a convent in either the small city of Huánuco or Peru's capital, Lima. In La Filomena, Lope de Vega introduces Amarilis to his readers as a Criolla, someone who was born in the Americas but is ethnically Spanish.

Everything else that could be gathered about her life is solely sourced from her poem. Amarilis claims to have been descended from two individuals close to conquistador Francisco Pizarro; such ancestors of hers would have fought against the rebellion of Francisco Hernández Girón. After being orphaned as a toddler or small child, Amarilis was sent with her younger sister, Belisa, to live with her aunt. Amarilis describes both herself and her younger sister as having been gifted children in their own rights. Their relationship was close, and Amarilis further explains that her sister became famous and married un joven venturoso, or a fortunate young man. Amarilis was unmarried at the time her epistle was written, telling Lope de Vega that she was beautiful enough to marry well, but was pushed towards nunhood by inspiration from las dulces Musas, the sweet muses. Any further information about Amarilis would be pure conjecture

The name Amarilis was credited to multiple different women over the years, but no particular theory has surfaced as more plausible than any other. The Spanish version of this article, /Amarilis, postulates that the poet's real name was Maria de Rojas y Garay (this article is not well-sourced, so readers should proceed with a fair amount of caution). Some historians believed that Amarilis was Doña Marta de Nevares Santoyo, a Spanish woman whom Lope de Vega met in 1616 and even had an affair with. Other scholars of history and literature consider the possibility that she could have been Isabel de Figueroa, María de Alvarado, or María Tello de Lara y de Arévalo y Espinosa. Other scholars, such as Ricardo Palma, doubted that Amarilis was a woman; still others regarded her as a total work of fiction.

When faced with the possibility that Amarilis was one of de Vega's fellow playwrights, Irving Leonard points out that, if she truly was a woman, it was unlikely that there were women playwrights in Spain, let alone its distant colonies such as Peru. However, Leonard does note that Peru and other former Spanish colonies boasted empresarias, or businesswomen, and possibly even female dramatists.

Epistle Summary

"Amarilis a Belardo" is a long epistle that, after revealing Amarilis' feelings for de Vega, serves as a request for him to write a biography on St. Dorothy, her patron saint. Amarilis also urges de Vega to end his affair with Marta de Nevares because he was supposed to uphold his spiritual duties as a priest. Lope de Vega responded to this poem a year later, confessing his love to the unknown author.

Structure

The poem itself is written in canzone form, which means that it would consist of stanzas with 10-12-syllable lines without a refrain. Amarilis does not keep to one specific rhyme scheme, but does ensure that different line endings within a given stanza do rhyme; for example, one part of a stanza may have the ABCA rhyme scheme, while another may evince a couplet. In total, there are 19 stanzas of varying lengths, each depicting a different category of content. Amarilis was influenced by Italian theories about poetry, and was knowledgeable on the subject of Latin poets, especially of Virgil.

Exegesis

Amarilis uses various metaphors to describe her love towards de Vega in great detail, explaining that it extends far past anything physical or romantic. Aware of her status as a woman living in the Spanish colonies, Amarilis declares that a man in her position would not have dared to be so brave as to address a famous Spanish author such as Lope de Vega. She then goes on to say that "la mujer, que es fuerte, / no teme alguna vez la misma muerte" ("a strong woman is not fearful of death itself").

Literary Reception

Amarilis' epistle is considered to be a literary masterpiece, and even Lope de Vega is so affected by her passionate and brilliantly crafted verse that not only was he driven to respond, but also to publish the epistle in one of his books/ In fact, the speculation behind Amarilis' identity is one of the most widespread of de Vega's whole career. Author William Felker goes even further, stating that he considers the epistle to be "the finest of early Latin American lyrics". However, Amarilis remains largely unknown to world literature, especially in comparison to later poets such as Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, who Felkner claims was the first Latin American lyricist to match Amarilis' literary prowess