Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 05.djvu/752

* CUBAN LITERATURE. 648 CUBE. goveninient, Heredia is held in high esteem not only for his political poems like the Him no del dcs'terrrido. but also for his descriptive iwems like the Niiigara, the Teocalli de Cholulu, and the Teiiipcslad, pervaded by a melancholy sentiment, and full of most nol)le imageiy. Among Here- dia"s works are many translations and imitations of the poems of English, French, and Italian writers, such as Young, Campbell, the pseudo- Ossian, Lamartine, Delavigne, Millevoye, Ar- nault, Foscolo, and Pindemonte (cf. the edition of Heredia's poems and his translations and imi- tations of foreign dramas, published at New York, 1875; his prose Leccioties de historia uni- versal, Toluca, 1831, and other prose works; and consult: Villemain, Essai sur le genie de Pindare et sur la poesie lyriqne, Paris, 1859; J. Kennedy, Modern Poets and Poetry of ^pain, London, 1852). Among the lesser lights must be counted Domingo del Monte, a Venezuelan, who, residing in Cuba, there composed pleasing romances, played the part of a generous patron of other poets, and strove energetically to have purity of idiom maintained in the Cuban use of the Castilian speech; Ignacio Valdes Machuca, who imitated Melendez Valdes in his Ocios pocUeos (1819), and also translated and imitated Jean- Jacques Rousseau ; Manuel Gonzalez del Valle, a teacher of philosophy, and the author of a Diccionario de las Musas (1827), etc. A protege of del Monte's was the romantic spirit Jose Jacinto Milanes (1814-63), a man of superior powers, whose lyrics are now gently sentimental, and again madly socialistic. Mi- lanes is also deemed one of the best playvrights that the island has had so far. His pieces in- clude El Condc Alareos, El poeta. en la eorte, Por el ;; cnte 6 por el rio, and A buena liambre no hay pan duro. Pictures of manners in dia- logue form are to be seen in his Miron cuhano (cf. the first ed. of his Ohras, Havana, 184G; second ed., New I'ork, 1865). Another true poet was Gabriel de la Concepcion Valdes, best known by his pseudonym Plileido (1809-44). He was a mulatto and a foundling, and had but slight training, yet few Cuban lyrics will live longer than his romance entitled Xicotencal, and his sonnets, La muerte de Gessler, Falalidad, and Plcyaria (cf. the eds. of his verse. New York, 1856; and Havana. 1880). Of xmdisputed excel- lence is the work of the poetess Gertrudis Gomez de Avellaneda (1814-73). She was eminently successful as a lyric poet and as a dramatist, less so as a novelist (cf. an edition of her works, Madrid, 1869). Among the countless writers of verse that have arisen in Cuba later than Avellaneda. three are of particular merit: Joaqufn Lorenzo Luaees (1826-67), the author of war songs (the Caida de ilisolonyhi', etc.), of odes (see especially the Oracidn de Mafntias of biblical inspiration and the ode A Cyrus Field, on the laying of the At- lantic cable), and of one or another drama (cf. the Poesias de J. L. Luaees, Havana, 1857, and the Noches literarias en casa de A'. Azsdrate, Havana, 1866): Juan Clemente Zenea (1832- 71 ) , whose elegiac verse is full of a tender melan- cholv (cf. the complete edition of his Poesias, Nevv York, 1872) : and Rafael Maria de Mendive (1821-86), noted for his translation of the Irish Melodies of Thomas Moore, whose influence is also easily discernible in his original Cviban verse (cf. the Poesias of Mendive, Havana, 1883; and the Melodias irlandcsas, New York, 1875). To the list of the nineteenth-century poets there may furtlier be added the names of Ramon VCdez y Herrera (born 1808), Miguel Teiirbe de Tolon (1820-68), Francisco Orgaz (1815-73), Ramon de Palma y Romay (1812-60), Ramon Zambrana (1817-66), Jose Fornaris (1827-90), Jose Giiell y Rente, etc. As compared with her poets, it is clear that the prose writers of Cuba are distinctly inferior in importance. In the eighteenth cen- tury, she lias the historians Arrati and Ur- rutia; in the nineteenth, Valdez, Jose Arrango y Castillo, etc. Among her legal writers have figured Conde, Ayala, Armas, BermUdez, Cintra, etc., and among her moralists and writers on philosophical matters, Barea, Veranes, Jos6 Augustin Caballero, Felix Varela, Jo.se de la Luz Caballero, etc. In the fine arts Vermay and Perouani have earned some recognition, and in music Villate has gained notice b.v his operatic compositions. A really good critical accoimt of Cuban prose and poetry has yet to be written; more light on the subject may be expected from the publication of the Biblioteea selecta hispano- cubana de prosistas and the Antologia de poesia cubana, which a commission of littera- teurs has presented to the Spanish Academy. On Cuban lyric poets an excellent essay has been written by AI. Jlenendez y Pelayo and now ap- pears as the preface to the second volume of the Antologia de poetas hispano-amerieanos (Madrid, 1893), which contains very good selections from the works of tlie most important Cuban poets. Consult also: the Parnaso ciibano, Coleecion de poesias selectas de autores cubanos desde Ze- queira, etc. (Havana, 1881); the Cuba poctica, coleecion eseogida de las composieiones en verso de los poetas cubanos desde Zequeira, prepared by Fornaris and Luaees (2d ed., Havana, 1861) ; Hills, Bardos etibanos, antologia de las mejores. poesias liricas de Heredia, 'Pldcido' Avellaneda, Milanes, Mendive, Luaees, y Zenea, with bio- graphical notices of each of the poets and a com- prehensive bibliography of their works and of Cuban poetry in general (Boston, 1901) ; Bachil- ler y Morales, Apuntes para la historia de las letras y de la instruccidn publica en la isla de Cuba (Havana, 1800) ; ^Mitjans, Estudio sohre el moviniienfo cientifieo y lilerario de Cuba (Ha- vana, 1890) : Merchi'm, Estudios critieos (Bogotfi, 1886) ; Calcagno, Diccionario biogrdfico eubano (New York, 1878) ; Gonzfilez del Valle, La poesia lirica en Cuba (new ed., Barcelona, 1900). CUBE (Lat. eubus, Gr. ku/Sos, kybos, cube), or Reoi;l.4B Hex.viiedkon. A regular solid with six square faces, each of which is parallel to the one opposite to it. It is a form of frequent oc- currence in nature, especially among crystals. The cube or third power of a number is the prod- uct formed by taking the number three times as a factor, e.g. the cube of 4. or 4^ = 4 • 4 ■ 4 = 64. This use of the term arises from the circum- stance that the solid contents of a cube may be expressed by the third power of the number which expresses the length of one of its edges. Thus, if the edge of a cube is 4 inches, its vol- ume is 4 • 4 • 4 • 1 cubic inch, or 64 cubic inches. The cube root of a number is one of the three equal factors of the number : e.g. the cube root of 8 is 2, since 2 • 2 ■ 2 = 8. The number of which the root is sought is called the power, and