Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - XII. The Bullfight
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
THE BULLFIGHT 265
they all feel the urge of the great vocation. They are
possessed by the most wonderful and sublime of all
arts; they are candidates for immortality.
The possibility of the boundless admiration of a
population of twenty-five million persons preys like a
nightmare on the youth of Spain. Hundreds of young
men answer this call every year. Some of them work
their way into the profession, become mediocre com-
batants and sooner or later succumb in the perform-
ance of their handicraft. One of them, perhaps, will
master the art with all its delicate ramifications; he
will take as his model some master of old, whose
maxims he will carry out in every detail. For, once in
each new century there arises an espada who develops
an entirely new system and creates a school of his own.
His name will never die, but will be spoken by every
tongue in the nation; it will shine in the firmament of
history; his biography will be written and rewritten
again and again; his esthetic significance will be dis-
cussed in newspapers and periodicals. Pepe Illo,
Montes, Lagartijo, were the shining stars in fame’s
constellation; in their light the divine Cervantes, the
author of Don Quixote, pales to insignificance.
Some of them, perhaps, neither read nor write and
may know so little as to fancy Catalonia near the
North Pole. But they are permitted to associate with
the first persons of the land; young counts and marquis
hover in their wake. They have in their pay a body
physician and a private secretary; they travel on spe-
cial trains; some of them have private orchestras to
wake them in the morning. Ladies of high station be-
siege them with fragrant Dillets-doux and beg to be
granted a rendezvous.
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
