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.The dialogue begins with the words of Acasto, with 3a Virgilian invocation of the muse in aid of a theme ‘more new, more 4noble and more flush of fame / Than all that went before’.73 This takes 5the form of a couplet of blank verse (unrhymed iambic pentameter), 6followed by a half-line, which brings the reader up short and establishes 7a division between the invocation and what follows.Having established 8the novelty and uniqueness of their subject, the three set out to debate 9America’s relation to diverse strands of imperial tradition and to estab-30111lish America’s imperial lineage by attempting to create a viable relation 1to the hemispheric past.2To do so is not an easy task, particularly in relation to the great 3indigenous cultures of the Western hemisphere.As we have seen in 4Chapter 3, in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England, the Black 5Legend invoking the cruelty of Spanish imperial expansion had a partic-6ularly potent impact, and was frequently invoked to justify the legitimacy 7and moral superiority of English colonial endeavours.David Shields, in 8his perceptive analysis of the Black Legend of Spanish Conquest, has 9observed that it was customarily evoked by three principal groups in 40111the following contexts: first, by Spanish critics of colonization; secondly, 1by Protestant rivals for colonial empire, and thirdly, by South Americans 21111struggling against colonialism and the cultural and political systems226Colonial encounters in New World writing1111engendered by it.Essentially the Black Legend describes the Spanish 2Conquistadores arriving in a New World characterized by prelapsarian 3innocence and abundance, whose childlike inhabitants lived together in 4harmony before the arrival of the Europeans.The Spaniards are por-5trayed as evildoers who, though ostensibly wishing to extend the blessings 6of the Catholic faith, were in reality more concerned with amassing wealth 7by enslaving Indians to extract precious minerals from the mines;74 no 8distinction is made between Spanish supporters and opponents of col-9onization, and the native inhabitants of the New World are invariably 1011presented as victims.1‘The Rising Glory of America’ begins with an evocation of iconic 2historical figures linked to Spanish colonization.Acasto, the first speaker, 3111recalls Columbus, whom he describes as a heroic figure battling his way 4‘thro’ oceans pregnant with perpetual storms / and climates hostile to 5advent’rous man’ (p.559).He then asks a rhetorical question: why speak 6at all of figures linked to the excesses of Spanish imperial expansion?78But why, to prompt your tears, should we resume9The tale of Cortez, furious chief, ordain’d20111With Indian blood to dye the sands, and choak1Fam’d Mexico, thy streams with dead? Or why2Once more revive the tale so oft rehears’d3Of Atabilipa, by thirst of gold4(All conquering motive in the human breast)5Deprived of life, which not Peru’s rich ore6Nor Mexico’s vast mines could then redeem?7(p.559)89The phrase ‘to prompt your tears’ recalls ‘The Tears of the Indians’, 30111the title of the 1656 English translation of Bartolomé de Las Casas, the 1Dominican priest who played (as we have observed) a crucial role in 2contesting the excesses of Spanish colonization.Freneau and Bracken-3ridge, however, put the Black Legend to a slightly different use.The 4rhetorical question quoted (i.e., why bother to play the same tired old 56riff and mention the Black Legend at all) implies that invoking the tears 7of the reader, if not those of the Indians in the formulation of the trans-8lator of Las Casas, has become a standard and thus tedious rhetorical 9gambit.After mentioning the conqueror Cortés, notorious (as we have 40111seen in previous chapters) for the violence and bloodshed that charac-1terized the conquest of Mexico, and Atabilipa (Atahualpa), the young 21111Inca emperor executed by Pizarro in the conquest of Peru (as discussedPerforming the Creole2271111in Chapter 3), and invoking the ‘rich ore’ and ‘vast mines’ of colonial 2South America, Freneau turns to his own continent as a more appro-3priate subject:45Better these northern realms demand our song6Design’d by nature for that rural reign,7For agriculture’s toil.No blood we shed8For metals buried in a rocky waste.9Cursed be that ore, which brutal makes mankind,1011And prompts mankind to shed a brother’s blood.1(p.559)23111Here Freneau is establishing the following line of argument: North 4America is designed, not for mining, but for agriculture.Therefore, 5British colonialism in North America is less brutal and bloody than the 6Spanish imperial project, predicated on the extraction of precious metals.7The implied conclusion is that agriculture is thus morally superior to 8mining, and the corollary of this is that British colonialism is morally 9superior to that of Spain [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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.The dialogue begins with the words of Acasto, with 3a Virgilian invocation of the muse in aid of a theme ‘more new, more 4noble and more flush of fame / Than all that went before’.73 This takes 5the form of a couplet of blank verse (unrhymed iambic pentameter), 6followed by a half-line, which brings the reader up short and establishes 7a division between the invocation and what follows.Having established 8the novelty and uniqueness of their subject, the three set out to debate 9America’s relation to diverse strands of imperial tradition and to estab-30111lish America’s imperial lineage by attempting to create a viable relation 1to the hemispheric past.2To do so is not an easy task, particularly in relation to the great 3indigenous cultures of the Western hemisphere.As we have seen in 4Chapter 3, in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England, the Black 5Legend invoking the cruelty of Spanish imperial expansion had a partic-6ularly potent impact, and was frequently invoked to justify the legitimacy 7and moral superiority of English colonial endeavours.David Shields, in 8his perceptive analysis of the Black Legend of Spanish Conquest, has 9observed that it was customarily evoked by three principal groups in 40111the following contexts: first, by Spanish critics of colonization; secondly, 1by Protestant rivals for colonial empire, and thirdly, by South Americans 21111struggling against colonialism and the cultural and political systems226Colonial encounters in New World writing1111engendered by it.Essentially the Black Legend describes the Spanish 2Conquistadores arriving in a New World characterized by prelapsarian 3innocence and abundance, whose childlike inhabitants lived together in 4harmony before the arrival of the Europeans.The Spaniards are por-5trayed as evildoers who, though ostensibly wishing to extend the blessings 6of the Catholic faith, were in reality more concerned with amassing wealth 7by enslaving Indians to extract precious minerals from the mines;74 no 8distinction is made between Spanish supporters and opponents of col-9onization, and the native inhabitants of the New World are invariably 1011presented as victims.1‘The Rising Glory of America’ begins with an evocation of iconic 2historical figures linked to Spanish colonization.Acasto, the first speaker, 3111recalls Columbus, whom he describes as a heroic figure battling his way 4‘thro’ oceans pregnant with perpetual storms / and climates hostile to 5advent’rous man’ (p.559).He then asks a rhetorical question: why speak 6at all of figures linked to the excesses of Spanish imperial expansion?78But why, to prompt your tears, should we resume9The tale of Cortez, furious chief, ordain’d20111With Indian blood to dye the sands, and choak1Fam’d Mexico, thy streams with dead? Or why2Once more revive the tale so oft rehears’d3Of Atabilipa, by thirst of gold4(All conquering motive in the human breast)5Deprived of life, which not Peru’s rich ore6Nor Mexico’s vast mines could then redeem?7(p.559)89The phrase ‘to prompt your tears’ recalls ‘The Tears of the Indians’, 30111the title of the 1656 English translation of Bartolomé de Las Casas, the 1Dominican priest who played (as we have observed) a crucial role in 2contesting the excesses of Spanish colonization.Freneau and Bracken-3ridge, however, put the Black Legend to a slightly different use.The 4rhetorical question quoted (i.e., why bother to play the same tired old 56riff and mention the Black Legend at all) implies that invoking the tears 7of the reader, if not those of the Indians in the formulation of the trans-8lator of Las Casas, has become a standard and thus tedious rhetorical 9gambit.After mentioning the conqueror Cortés, notorious (as we have 40111seen in previous chapters) for the violence and bloodshed that charac-1terized the conquest of Mexico, and Atabilipa (Atahualpa), the young 21111Inca emperor executed by Pizarro in the conquest of Peru (as discussedPerforming the Creole2271111in Chapter 3), and invoking the ‘rich ore’ and ‘vast mines’ of colonial 2South America, Freneau turns to his own continent as a more appro-3priate subject:45Better these northern realms demand our song6Design’d by nature for that rural reign,7For agriculture’s toil.No blood we shed8For metals buried in a rocky waste.9Cursed be that ore, which brutal makes mankind,1011And prompts mankind to shed a brother’s blood.1(p.559)23111Here Freneau is establishing the following line of argument: North 4America is designed, not for mining, but for agriculture.Therefore, 5British colonialism in North America is less brutal and bloody than the 6Spanish imperial project, predicated on the extraction of precious metals.7The implied conclusion is that agriculture is thus morally superior to 8mining, and the corollary of this is that British colonialism is morally 9superior to that of Spain [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]