Alvarez-Altman, Grace

English

The College at Brockport, State University of New York: Digital Commons @Brockport

Literary Onomastics Studies
Volume 5 Article 17
1978
Literary Onomastics in the Picaresque Novel
"Lazarillo Des Tormes"
Grace Alvarez-Altman
Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.brockport.edu/los
This Conference Paper is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @Brockport. It has been accepted for inclusion in Literary
Onomastics Studies by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @Brockport. For more information, please contact kmyers@brockport.edu.
Repository Citation
Alvarez-Altman, Grace (1978) "Literary Onomastics in the Picaresque Novel "Lazarillo Des Tormes"," Literary Onomastics Studies: Vol.
5 , Article 17.
Available at: http://digitalcommons.brockport.edu/los/vol5/iss1/17
.LITERARY ONOMASTICS IN 
L::L\ZARI LLO de' TORMES 
Grace Alvarez-Altman* 
r 
Criminologists have five types,of moral delinquents: 1-insane, 
2-instinctive, 3-impa~sioned, g-occasionpl, 5-habitual. Roquery !~ 
less vicious th~n villainy. Lqgically there is ~o sharp distinction, 
only the ppint of view varies. Jame Hind, a popular highwayman in 
English literature who was drawn, hanged and quartered on Friday, 
Sept. 24, 1652 was celebrated by authors such as Hainam, Sadler antl Mor~eli. 
Spaniards were the first to cultivate preponderant. roquery. Jhe French 
fabliaux and novelle might set forth traditiona1'cheats and gallant .ruses, 
the German "lib~tr vagatorum" might paint the manners of th;i.ev,es and 
vagabo~d, je9t-books assembling tricks and tales of legendary outlaws, 
chap-bqoks, beggar-books, character-books, canny-catching pamphlets 1 
(repenb:'lnt tracts), prison tracts and canting books or lexl.cons· (llight 'have 
roguish fla~or but not in the true sense of. genre introduced by Lazarillo 
de Tormes, a work imitate~ by all European counlries. According to 
~, 
F.W. Chandler the most plaguerized work in Jiteratures was THE' ENGLISH ROGUt. 
Early seventeenth century, which stole three fourths of its materials 
from the Spanish picaresque novel. One of the poems in the book reads: 
*This article is in honor of Dr. Walter Bowman, to whom this issue is dedicated. 
232 
Alvzrez-Altman 2 
G ' L' B ' d F'~ . uzman, azqro, uscon, an ranc1on 
till thou appearest did shine as at 
high noon thy bodk'~ now extant: 
those that judge of wit say, they and 
Rabelais toq fall short, bf ~t. 
Lazarillo de Tormes, had three simultaneous editions (Antwerp, 
Alcala, Burg9s) iry J.?45 ,and w.as translate.d widely even into Hungarian' 
from a fo'trn·er Latil") tran~lation (Job Herezer) in Danzig, in 1656. .: 
This genr~:~Fltten mp~tly in prose is autobiographical~ low.life in 
lieu of heroic is depicted, its corpus· is determined by subject 'matter 
from observed reality and not ·~deals. ~Hunger ·is th~ impelling motive ' 
leading ·to mendicancy, b~gging and petty crime. The wealth of the.most 
glorious l)ation (Spain U[lder the ·Catholi-c moria~chs, Charles V and 
Phillip II) was sper;~t on recoQquer.l,ng the Per'tinsola from the Moors, 
exploration, colof}izati.on and sett-lement of 'tile' Americas, fighting to 
defend (~he. ~aith."w.ith the expulsi.on of the .Moors~ and Jews. To this We 
add an increase in aver~iorJ to 111anuel laber by tbe- impo.verished nobility, 
cau~+o.g .~.unger to ·t"lave even k_noc~ed at the do'or of the King's palace. 
The J;:as..t paragrapt") in the- book pirT points the, -exact time of Charles ' 1• • 
the Vth's ;r::~~.9tl~ 1525, w,hen the king of France, Francis I;. was prisoner 
in ttaplf~d afterr his deff:l.:at in, Pavia.· .H~re is a un.i:que literary genre 
with humor a11d no ,bitterness). as Pt1!3 cor'I:.uption of society ia seen 
throug~.,~he, e~es of a rogue passing f'rom mas.ter to master. 
P!caro is a substantive of uncertain origin to be found in the 
jargon of the bullfighters with the word picadores (horsemen on 
f.• 
·' LOS 234 
Alvarez-Altman 3 
blindfolded horses who incite the bu~l tg great anger by piercing 
them witb pointed sticks in the back of their necks.) Picaro is ~ 
never mentioned in the"'noveLLazarillo de Tarfnes and was documented' ' 1 
for the first time in 1545 meaning "sujeto vil y de .mala vida•l. (evli 
person of immoral life). Picard.!a is the name of a fraternity of Rogues, J 
meaning low, ruinous, vile action, cheating, childish, mischievousn'ess 
coming from the name of the French province, known for its vagabonds, 
its poor and lazy individuals. In 1525 the phrase "p.!caro de cocina" 
was one who worked in kitchens chopping and cutting meats and vegetab'les~ ' 
Picaresco as an adjective has its first writ~en documentation almost 
one hundred years after tl:le appearance. of La'zatillo~de Tormes. A marked 
J • 
distinction is to be made for tne P!caro between VICE a~d MISERY. His 
misery might be betause of his unemployment or ragge'd appearence L Al'l 
easy girl,. petty thi.ef, temporary' honest job-holder· servant squire, maid, 
valet or b\:Jtler all- f.it' within the context o'f 'the Spanish literature for 
the word P{caro. It rriust 'be som~t~ing or an· indivii::Jual who roams -'(a so'ul,' 
a coin, the devil.J1imself, etc.) ·frdm master-, to ,masfert commentihg on .the 
society through. his eyes arid his point of view. In ~onseca's book Life 
of Christ.,:·- ·published in 1602 ·in .L:isboa the prodigal son upon ·returning 
is callad p{caro and so is the, ragamuffin who appeared uninvlted at ~he 
wedding parable. The idea of pos9ible repentarfce and virtuoslty. is 
characteristic of the true p{caro of the Spanish l'iterature. '(. 
LOS . . 235. 
Al varez-Altman 4 
LAZARILLO DE TORMES 
Lazarillo ~s the diminutive of Lazaro. Since Spanish surnames 
do not u~e trye article with names of ri~ers, De 1ormes is for· being 
born on the ban~s of the river Tormes. A most positive reaction against 
the infl~te~ tal~s Qf chivalric prowess was seen in the picaresque novel. 
Lazarillo.. seJ1'ves ~ight' masters in about ten years. This anti-h~ra·, 
innoce~t-9f id~as and concerned only with keeping alive lives by his wits, 
passes fr~m master to master who keep their food under constant lock 
and key. 
All tha~ 1 cQuld find and.concie~ to· 
sustain my life: and I believe that hunger 
was a light to me in finding these 
darksome contrivances, for they say the 
wits pre aqimated by it.Z 
Gonzalez was his f~ther's name, nne of the nomerocs patronyms 
poP.ula,rized during the time _of .th~ visigothic domination bf Spain. 
It is made up of two bel~icose gothic wqrds accomodated to the Latin 
and r_omance morphology qnq phonetics. Gurt'd ( th) meaning "battle, 
comba~, fight" and Alv t.he gothic a.l..f, elfo or alba, spirit of nature 
a·r dueJ1de of the germanic mythology, thus "the elf of the battle" or 
better yet "the genius in battle" would be the perfect name far Le;zarillo 
De lormes due to 1his ing~nuity in staying alive. Amazing is hi~ battle 
oF wit and philosophy. His mother's name Perez may be "son of P.e-dro-. 
rock,. 'that is "rock rolling f:(om place to place." However, ,by 
t~anscultural homonyms due to the Jewish influence in all walks of life 
LOS .236 
Alvarez-Altman 5 
in Spain, Perez may be the .name found in I.Chroncil~ 13: 9-11 and 
ii Samuel 6: 6-8, given to Uzza upon dropping dead 'for h·aving 
touched the sacred ark. It's meaning of "Broken, cracked, .stricken" 
would be most apropos for Lazariilo. 'When his mother gave him a~ay 
to his first master, a blin'd beggar, he was ten or eleven years· old' and 
his initiation into the picaresqu~ life starts in ·the fo'llowing manner: 
Lazarus, put thine ear close to this bull 
and you shall hear a great noise inside. 
Naively I went~ believing this to. b~ so •• 
he swung out his hand ha~d and g&me my head 
a great blow against tha devil of a bull, 
so that for three days the pain .of t~e 
butting remained.3 
Now from his stay with the second master, a prie·st who did • , 
not know Lazarus was the snake: 
Lifting the stick high, thinking he had 
the snake underneath and would give it 
such a cudgelling as should kill it, with 
all his might he discharged so great a 
whack upon my head that l:le lef,t me 
senseless and very badly wounded.4 
If statistics prove that 75% of the World population in modern 
times goes to bed hungry we can only imagine what it was in the 
sixteenth century. 
\ I I I 
'The genius in battle, the son of a rolling rock, the broken 
., 
• l 
and battered one, were not names fitting to po~tray the misery, 
pathos, satire, agonies, and vicissitudes of this anti-hero. This 
protagaoist, who amplified human frailities, crude realities needed a 
1.!05 2J7 
Alvarez-Altman 6 
name more in depth, a :name to create pity., :sy111Jathy, and compassiort. 
We would like to .consider the five possibilities of the depth and 
impact of th~ name Laza~us: 
I- The :transitive infd.rriti ve LACERAR ,fs '8 ma.dern versiun· of ·the 
old latin LACER ARE meaning "mangle, tear jn preces, hurt, .S:trangle," 
while LAC:ERAR, .the linb:ansitive infiniti've .denotes "to suffer, be >in 
deep pain." The intransitive infinitive i.AZRAR- "to. -suffer miserably" 
is ·found ·only in Portuguese. and Spanish. .LACERIA means a conglomeration 
Df knots difficult to unwind. Even though the form LAZRAR became the 
most forceful, we cannot concieve nor does there exist a later LAZERUS 
in the Spanish due to the fact that a syncope LAZRO noesn't occur Since 
the internal A of the last syllable (rar) is never lust. Yet to make 
this more bewildering we find a substantive ·in old Spanish LAZRADO, a 
gerund ( lazdrar) "he who suffers tribulations and misery." 
II - The English subst'antive LAZAR might be thought to be 
cognatl:l of the Spanish LAZAR. On the other hand "a person striken 
with .lepr.osy" is the English meaning and ".to tie into many knots" is 
the S~anish meaning. 
III - LAZARUS is the only proper name attached to a character in 
any of the parables of Jesus. Luke 16: 20 "And there was a certain beggar 
. 
named L-azarus, which was laid at his gate full with sores ••• the dogs 
came to lick his sores." The blind beggar, first master of Lazarillo 
c • 
.· 
LOS . 238 
Alvar~z-Altman 9 
should have been given this name, but he was too astu~e to fall into 
that pattern. More details are given of the first year training with 
this master than with any of the other seven. 
For after God this man gave me my life, 
and although blind lighted and guided 
me in the career of living •• he had a 
thousand other modes and fashions for 
getting money: he said he knew prayers 
to many and diverse effects: •• he had all 
the world marching after him, especially 
the women, for they believed whatever 
he to~d them; from them he extracted large 
profits ••• and used to gain more in a 5 
month than a hupdred blind men in a year. 
This universal force could not be given any specific name. He 
represented 95% or mare of the World population starving ~nd in m~sery. 
He is nameless, just like the other seven masters, r~minding us of 
the "priviledge myth" of the Sufis in Eastern cultures and of 
Basilides, agnostic in Alexandria during the second century who propagated 
the idea that nameless entities are even more powerful. 
IV - Is there an analogy with leprosy in this protagonist's name? 
Yes. The order of St. Lazarus, established in the twelfth century for 
their care in France confirms that the average life span of a person 
sticken with leprosy was ten years. It is exactly ten years from the time 
that Lazrillo de Tormes, as a ten year old child s~arts his roguery 
~ 
until he abandons it at the age of twenty. 
V - The true origin of his name takes us to the Pentateuch 
(Genesis 15:2, Exodus L8:4, Exodus 6:23) and also to the Hagiograph 
LOS 23.9 
Alverez-Altman 8 
(I Chrnnci'le 23:15, 17) the name Eliezar, Eleazar. The hebrew, "El :Szar" 
means ".God has helped" or "God is my he1p." Moses .was so thankfui for 
his deli\/erance from the Egypti:ans that his second 'son was named 
Eliezar. The greek form of Eliezar is (AZARDS and the latin is LAZARD. 
The author has added the diminutive suff{x "illo" to convey a very 
affectionate tone. The ·ragged leper whose s'alvation 'is envied by the 
rich man known as ~AZARUS is not to tie ·confused with the LAZARUS dating 
back to ±he sixth century. Lazarillo de Tormes lives during the ~ign 
of Charles V, whose ~mpire equ~lled'only·that of the Roman in extensiun, 
presti~e .and corruption, Both the LAZARUS of Bethany and the beggar~whose 
lacer-ations were licked by the tlogs .ar'e symbols of transcending pov.erty, 
malice, ~isease, corruption, and perversion. This is the basis nf the 
.name lazarillo de Tormes, the o~tstandi~ picaresque p~tagonist, whose 
name· added a new neologism to lhe -spanish vocabulary, i.e., nleatler of 
the blint:l, ey-e-opener, one who enlightens by observations not bit'telr, 
not caustic but compassionate and merciful." Lazarillo de Tormes sca'les 
the fi\fe levels of the religious worH:J. Of his second master the -p.riest: 
.I escapetl from the thunder and got into 
the light~ning, for this blind beggar as, 
compared to this one he was an Alexander 
the great (~ymbol of ~enerosity) •• ~I say 
no m6re, except that all the meaness of the 
world was enclosed in this one; I know not 
whether it was his own invention, at if6he had annexed it with the clerical habit. 
• t 
LOS -240 
Alverez-Altman ! 
Of his master the indulgenoe seller, whose business Mart~n Luther 
highly criticized in 1523, Lazarillo expounds: 
After fooling the pupulace with tricks 
and promises he sold 3,000 indulgences •• 
how many of these games these cheats 
must play among the innocent.7 
Amount derived from sale of the pardons in 1551 is ~upposed to have 
been 440,000 ducats, of which the Church recieved only 20,000. 
Friars are revealed to us in depth, the chapla~n with whom he 
spends four of his teen-age years conducted his business so wisely that 
Lazarillo finds himself dressing and eating almost like a 'gentleman. 
To appease his conscious he decides to serve a master outsia~ of £he 
religious world but quickly returns to it and marri~s the servant of his 
last master, the archpriest: 
Sir, I told him I determined to stick to 
honest people, true it's that some of my 
friends more than thrice told me she (his 
servant woman) had three childbirths from 
you before I married her.B 
Lazarillo de Tormes is a superhuman force (the soul' of the bibrical 
Lazarus in heaven) with human understanding, compassionate of the 
weaknesses and corruption of society, especially within the Religious 
World. The nameless masters of Lazarillo de Tormes .are to be divided 
into two groups; the poverty stricken whose sole purpose in life is to 
survive and in modern times materialistic man, while the other group 
< 
,, lOS 241 
Alverez-Altman !0 
comprises the re1·igious goverm~nt-s_, ThrOLm .. h .. the~.~y~s of a youn,gster, 
teenager and youny aduLt, ~he .Inquisition and -r~aders of those 9?YS 
tolerated the truths, "and ca~u~ti~ :realitie~.) .coated with ·humo.ur an~ 
' 
compassion, which is one of .the peculiar characteris.tics .of the Spanish 
:Picaresqoe Novel. 
NOTES 
. .....__ 
1 frank Wa"dlelgh .Chandler, The Literature o'f Roguery, \lo.l. 1 
EBoston; Univ~rsity Press, Cambriqge, 1907)-p. 10 
2 The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes and his Fortunes and Adversities 
3 
4 
) 
6 
7 
8 
· ·translated by R. ·Bou1cbe-De1bosc (New York: Mitchell 
J<ennerby, 19~1) .p. 15 
Ibid, p. 10 
Ibi-d, p. 11 
.. 
Ibid, p. 33-34 
Ibid, p. 37 
Ibid., p. 114 
.Ibid, ;-p. 123 


Literary Onomastics in the Picaresque Novel  Lazarillo Des Tormes

https://digitalcommons.brockport.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1254&context=los

Literary Onomastics in the Picaresque Novel Lazarillo Des Tormes

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

The College at Brockport, State University of New York: Digital Commons @Brockport