Miscellaneous Letters Exchanged Between Jose Rizal and Others in 1884

024. José M. Cecilio, Manila, 9 March 1884

News of friends – Offers his new house to Rizal – recommends Ceferino de Leon, law student going to Spain and Rizal’s admirer – Leonor Rivera – A student orchestra.

025. José M. Cecilio, Manila, 17 April 1884

Ceferino de León – Holy Week in Manila – Medical students failed – Congratulates Rizal in advance on his forthcoming graduation as a physician – Miciano criticizes Rizal’s Junto al Pasig.

026. José Cecilio, Manila, 9 June 1884

A literary controversy over – Valentín Bautista defends him – News of friends.

–—

024. José M. Cecilio, Manila, 9 March 1884

News of friends – Offers his new house to Rizal – recommends Ceferino de Leon, law student going to Spain and Rizal’s admirer – Leonor Rivera – A student orchestra.

Sta. Cruz, Manila, 9 March 1884

Mr. José Rizal y Mercado

My dear Comrade, Babylonian President, distinguished Namesake, and esteemed Friend,

I have just received at this moment (between eleven and twelve noon) your awaited letter of the 29 January last in which you complain, or better said, you regret the interruption of our relations so well described by you as pleasant for one who tries to tighten them with his humble pen.

I am going to succinctly relate to you the sickness I had. In the first days of the month of November last I had a fever more rebellious than all I have had since I came to this vale of tears, for it did not abandon me until after two months and a half. That fever began in a very bad way leaving me dead for a period of ten minutes, but at last friend Zamora succeeded to drive it out of my poor body.

One or two weeks before I fell ill I answered a letter of yours addressing my reply to Sauco Street. By the time that has elapsed and your letter that I have he pleasure to answer I am now convinced that it had been lost, as you make no reference to it whatever.

In that letter was news of girls we know as well as of our male friends.

Before relating to you various bits of news, gathered for sometime in my memory, I offer you, above all, my new little house on Trinidad Street, where I have been living with my parents since the first of December. I don’t believe you have forgotten this street, or alley, through which we often passed at night when you were here in the city to go to the little corner house of Mentang and therefore I will only tell you that I live near the house of this young lady and nearer still to that of Orang, ever winsome and amiable. She continues giving pains to the souls in Purgatory and it seems to me that no star shines in the firmament of her love. Each time we meet, your presumed father-in-law V . . . ., asks how you are getting along in that city. I satisfy him immediately by telling him that you are well.

I must advise you that for sometime I have not been at the house of this amiable lass in order not to give the neighbors reason to talk who ignore my mission of proxy aped acta [A Spanish legal term meaning “among the recorded proceedings” - rly] that I am after their money, but I see them on the street, in the church, and at the window. Do you know that until now your sisters-in-law M . . . . , T . . . . , and O . . . . believe that you are the fiancé of O . . . . and I am your energetic proxy? One night, at the house of M . . . ., whom I frequently see and treat, she told me, after I had teased her about her absent fiancé, that if I should talk to O . . . . in that way in your name, then, I fulfilled my mission well. I do not dare describe the phrases I addressed to her as honeyed or not. Do you remember what she said that because her house was small I did not want to go there on the day of Our Lady of the Pillar and instead I went to the house of Manuel Locsin, who is present in Molo where he has opened a school? Well, in order to make up for that I dined at her house on the day of the feast of the virgin (October). M . . . . asks me very seriously how are your love affairs with O . . . . to which I replied that as to its height, I do not know, but as to its lowness, I do know.

I take the liberty of recommending to you a friend whom you know, having been your classmate in metaphysics, whose name is Ceferino de Leon, who is going to that city to finish his law course. This young man is one of the enthusiastic admirers of your literary works. It is enough to tell you that he has taken all your writings that are in my possession to read at home and he is determined to live beside you in order to learn how to write.

Probably he will depart from here next April. This young man calls you doubly Leonor and I will tell you why. He wanted to court the little landlady [01] but knowing that you are her fiancé, because it is said so everywhere, he abstained from declaring his love to her. One evening, however I made him accompany me to the Tomasina House and I told the little landlady about the amorous intention of the fellow. He would not believe that the little landlady is free. After a few days he thought of O . . . . [02] also. Then I told him that if he went there, he would hear there that she is your fiancé. And my friend says to me, “Well! That or this? Then Mr. Rizal is a man of double system Leonor.”

I gave Mentang your new address so that she can send you the letter which has been ready for some time in reply to the one in which you consoled her.

Compadre Rosauro has also sent you a letter to Sauco Street and, until now, has not received a reply.

Mr. Alejandro Roces is going there the coming month of April.

One evening on your visit to the house of the little landlady (5 Letran) she told me, replying to her mother, that you are mistaken in saying that you did not know that women know how to love, for she says, “Precisely we are the ones who know how to feel that sentiment,” because, the mother related, that you are surprised that C . . . . . . . ., how with a child, should love Pichon so much.

Compadre Teong related to me that one evening your mother and two sisters were eating at his house and they said of the sad life of the little landlady, that she is a foolish girl to suffer so much for you, and that they do not know if she had anything to gain by marrying you as you have many sisters that she will serve or will have to consider. The truth is, dear Namesake, this young woman is sick of fever every week and as you can understand very well, and this is the effect of the ardent passion she feels towards you.

M . . . . lives in a house on Elcano Street, Binondo, decently furnished and frequented by Spanish Filipinos, as they are called here, and as European Spaniards, and according to what they say, she attends dances frequently. I believe that she has a liking for such folk.

Cousin Miciano is very much tied to the skirt of M . . . .

Pololeng is still single but pursued by European admirers.

Meri has married a Spanish employee who is in a distant province and there beside him lives our American girl.

The lame man from Pagsanghan continues tied to T . . . ; M . . . . continues loving her absent fiancé who tried to come to get married but was not permitted to do so by his chief; and O . . . ., they say, continues loving Juanito but secretly for his father does not allow him to come having known of his amorous relations with the young lady, so they write to each other.

We had a student orchestra here and your cousin Leon was one of the first violinists, and Vicente and Galicano were first flutists. They were all the rage and they won the sympathy of the young women. Ceferino was one of the solicitors. They say that he collected some5,000.

I interrupt this letter to continue it tonight after coming from a visit to the family of Dr. Jugo. I have returned from the house of these amiable young women who asked me to tell you that they are now well and by this same mail they are writing to Mr. Pi. Days ago they had a little fever.

I end here and until the next mail. Receive the regards of compadres, friends, and my parents and brother and know that you are esteemed by your affectionate friend who embraces you.

José M. Cecilio

_______________

[01] Leonor Rivera, daughter of Mr. Antonio Rivera, who owned the boarding house called Casa Tomasina.

[02] “O” stands for Orang, the pet name of Leonor Valenzuela.

=====

025. José M. Cecilio, Manila, 17 April 1884

Sta. Cruz, Manila, 17 April 1884

Mr. José Rizal y Mercado

My esteemed Friend and distinguished Namesake,

The bearer of this letter, Mr. Ceferino de Leon, is the young man I recommended to you in my preceding letter dated 10 of last month, if my memory does not fail me. He is a friend who has a very intense desire to live with you on account of the favorable information that he has about your esteemed person and for being one of many who are enthusiastic about your literary productions. This young man and I were at the house of the landlord to ask for a letter of recommendation to you and to get the things to be sent to you. There we saw the little landlady, fairly improved in health for having spent a vacation at the house of the Ulberzua in San Marcelino.

On Palm Sunday O . . . . and I had a very long conversation which began at 5:00 in the afternoon and lasted until 10:00 at night whose constant theme was your boasted amorous relations with her. She insisted that it was not she who will be my friend but her namesake and therefore I am very wrong. I replied I stood firm that she will be your future consort as you yourself told me so and in proof of it I am appointed your proxy in this case. I proved to her that I fulfill my mission well by telling her that Mr. Ceferino de Leon wanted to court her and I stopped him, making him understand that the road to her is closed and I will say the same thing to all if I should know that they want to take the same road already taken by you. On account of this she became a little furious telling me to write you that he is already married so that you will no longer think of her winsome beauty.

She requests me to tell you that for learning too many foreign languages you my forget your own, and you ought to know that she speaks no other language but her own. I promised her that you will not forget our dialect and I shall make you write her a letter in poetic Tagalog.

Among those who attended the procession on Good Friday in Sta. Cruz she and her sister C . . . . were the most elegant. Orang was also at the procession of the salubong [01] accompanied by her cousins Mentang and Oñang.

The landlady, the little landlady, and the Ulberzua girls were at my house to view the Easter procession and the little landlady was insisting on seeing Orang, but as Orang was covered with a white veil when the procession passed by the house, we did not recognize her. O . . . . told me to tell the little landlady that she is not rivaling her over you. Namesake, what trouble are we stirring up among these young women!

M . . . . our elegant young woman, I believe now lives high. She has changed her way of living since the abrogation of her contract with J . . . .

Mentang, Tentay, and Oñang are still single.

This afternoon the only daughter remaining to our friend Mr. Felipe Zamora was buried and he asked me to transmit to you this sad news as his letters were already sealed and in the possession of Ceferino.

Have you met your friend Pilar?

You are very good-looking in your picture in winter garb. I saw it in the house of the landlord last night.

This year nearly two thirds of the students of medicine are suspended. I do not know if this is due to the famous student orchestra we had during the days of the carnival. You cousin G . . . . got the sad grade of “suspended.” At present these brothers are in their hometown . . . .

I send you my enthusiastic congratulations on your forthcoming graduation. Are you going to graduate as doctor? According to the landlord, after your graduation, you are going to London. This is a very good idea; afterwards you may visit Italy, Rome, Switzerland, Germany, and America, which is a great country.

There is a little Spaniard named Fernandez who is hovering about the house of Orang in the afternoons, but I believe that it is P . . . . who is the most tormented for almost every afternoon he walks back and forth in front of the house of . . . . We did not hear about this when you were still here.

M . . . . continues with her love affairs with my cousin Miciano.

At Miciano’s house I saw the melodrama written by you, Junto al Pasig and he told me that he had to enlarge a certain scene for being too short for staging afterwards. I do not know where at the request of Masaguer who will put the music. My cousin says that he trembles when he thinks of having to enlarge or add something to a work by you. As I do not understand poetry, I could not defend you against my cousin who told me that you have left out one syllable in one of the decimals which says, “Espiritu sublime!” and my cousin asks if the word opimas is pronounced opimas as it rhymes with simas in the verses that Satan speaks, it seems.

I tell you these literary things with my usual frankness so that you can defend yourself, though there is nothing unusual for you to commit this lapsus as celebrated poets have incurred in greater errors.

Ceferino bears so many embraces for you from the landlord, your kind family, and your affectionate friend who writes you . . . .

Dadivas asks about your condition in that city and requests me to give you his regards. It seems that he is going to write you one of these days.

Compliments from Valentin Bautista, Compadre Rosaruro, Gella, Teong, your Comadre, and others and receive the regards of your true friend,

José M. Cecilio

I accompanied Orang, Mentang, and Oñang on the night of Maundy Thursday to see the procession in Quiapo. Behind walked the lad Fernandez, enthusiastic admirer of O . . . ., so that I said to her that if my namesake would see him, he would break his vertebral column.

______________

[01] Salubong is the name of the procession held on Easter Sunday commemorating the meeting between the Mother and her resurrected Son. It features the lifting up of the mourning veil of the Mother by a child dressed as an angel.

=====

026. José Cecilio, Manila, 9 June 1884

A literary controversy over Junto al Pasig – Valentín Bautista defends him – News of friends.

Mr. José Rizal y Mercado

My Dear Namesake, Esteemed Friend, and Co-Babylonian Comrade,

I have your esteemed letter of 29 April last and I am taking advantage of the departure of the mail boat tomorrow, will now answer it.

By this date our friend Ceferino de Leon must have already given you affectionate and repeated embraces, as the local newspapers say that the ship on which he left arrived at Barcelona on the 25 of last month. This young man carries a letter of mine addressed to you in which, among other things, I said that my cousin Miciano had made some observations on your melodrama Juno al Pasig which were resolved a few days after that letter was written. On account of my numerous duties it had not been possible for me to transmit the result to you in due time. But now I am going to have the pleasure to report on it. Let me tell you to begin with that, being jealous as always of your literary reputation, I interviewed our friend Mr. Valentin Bautista, who has a copy of the melodrama and the rules on poetry, to consult him about the observations made by my cousin. E replied that the omission of one syllable was due to the mistake of the copyist who had omitted the word ser, inasmuch as in the copy his possession it says, “Espiritu, ser sublime!”

With regard to the other observation on your having rhymed the word cima [“apex” or “summit” -- rly] (which through carelessness I had written with an “s” in my letter), friend Bautista says that a poet is allowed to make such a variation of accentuation in words, that is to say, you have used poetic license.

I have transmitted this to my cousin in a letter as a reply to his observations. He replied that he was repenting, as I do, for having written you at once the observations he had made without consulting other copies of the melodrama, for he admits that the omission of a syllable was the fault of the clerk; but with reference too the variation of accent, he did not want to give in until after he had read Bautista’s letter that I am copying below. Bautista said that he wrote that letter in the midst of his numerous duties in the store and consequently only the pen moved and not reason.

X X X

Mr. José M. Cecilio

In return, friend Pepe, for the letter I received enclosed in yours that I am answering, I send you this which I hope will satisfy your desire and fulfils mine.

I told you, I remember, in a casual meeting, without consulting textbooks, that our compatriot and friend, Rizal, in rhyming in his melodrama Juto al Pasig with the term cima the objective opima, expressing optima, that is, making long a short syllable, converting a word accented on the antepenultimate syllable [the next to the last syllable - rly] into a common term, he had made use of poetic license. So I told you in defense of the absent friend, extolled author of that melodrama, and now I repeat it to you however much it may displease your kind cousin, Miciano. As we do not suppose him to be like some men who, moved by sentiments of odious egoism, persist in their obvious error, making discussion superfluous and every reasoning sterile, I believe he would be convinced if you tactfully indicate to him what I have expressed to you in this letter on the aforesaid point.

All dictionaries, dear Pepe, from that of the Academy of the Spanish Language to the very rich one of the philologist Dominguez, bring in their respective pages the terms systole and diastole, which are applied in medicine to the systaltic [characterized by alternate contraction and dilatation, as the action of the heart; pulsating - rly] movement that expands and contracts the heart, serve in poetry to designate certain figures of speech which consist in making short the first long syllable and vice versa the second. If, despite the dictionaries, their definition does not satisfy you and you want an evident proof that such figures are comprised in poetic license, take the trouble of picking up a book entitled Curso elemental de retorica y Poetica [An Elementary Course in Rhetoric and Poetry - rly] by Mr. Raymundo de Miguel, professor of rhetoric and poetics in Madrid, 5^th edition. You examine page 166 and there you will find the following: “Licencias poeticas” (Poetic license) – Spanish poetry admits, besides the ellipsis exactly the same licenses as in Latin. Such are: the synalepha [the blending of two successive vowels of adjacent syllables into one syllable. This is especially used to fit a poetic meter (example th’ elite for the elite) - rly] , syneresis [the drawing together of two consecutive vowels or syllables into one syllable, especially so as to form a diphthong - rly], diaeresis [the separation of two consecutive vowels, esp. of a diphthong, into two syllables - rly], systole [In English, a medical term perhaps here suggesting an expansion (?) - rly], and diastole [In English, a medical term perhaps here suggesting a contraction (?) - rly]. The diastole, on the contrary, consists in making long a short syllable, like oceano for oceano, feretro for feretro.” Also, I remember, Pepe, that Mr. Salva expresses himself in identical terms in discussing poetic licenses. I believe this explanation is sufficient to prove that my humble opinion lies in favor of the absent friend Rizal and is based on the unanimous opinion of various respectable and very competent authorities on the subject. However, if despite such opinions, there is someone who would insist on saying that a poet who, like the praiseworthy Rizal, is not permitted to express or write opima for opima, you decide the case with your prudent judgment and ignore me if I am mistaken. You know I esteem you sincerely as ever,

Your ever affectionate friend and sincere servant,

Valentin Bautista

Binondo, 8 May 1884

P.S.

By ear: Your good cousin and my very dear sir states in one of the paragraphs of his letter, among other things, exclamation and question marks: “I have seen that through poetic license, a word a syllable is suppressed, etc., but to change the accent of a word by taking away its natural harmony, never! How stupid! If that were so, where then would the authority of the Royal Academy be? This same illustrious Academy of the Language has in its dictionary the term diastole [see above] whole definition on the subject of poetry deals with the alteration of the accent as a figure of speech. It makes no contrary indication in this sense. Then it recognizes the existence of this figure and this recognition, its proper definition, does it not become an implicit sanction of the use of the said figure as an exceptional case? Enough.”

I will gladly comply with your request concerning the amorous atmosphere around O . . . . , but I must warn you that there is a standing bet between the brother-in-law of this Ch. and that young lady. It is this: she, that she will not be your wife, and he, that she will be.

According to what I have been told by D. V. M., lawyer and recently married to N., that if he did not want to go after O., it was because one day he asked her what qualifications she expected her husband to have and she said that she needed a man who was a doctor of medicine, licentiate in law, agronomist, etc. “Well then, the one who possesses these qualifications is Mr. Rizal, who is said to be her fiancé. For this reason, if Mr. Rizal is not explicitly loved, he exists in the mind of this young lady.” Tell me, namesake, if there is good logic in this.

This young lady is very fond of riding horseback. At night she practices on our street and one night she invited me to ride and I told her that I did not know how. I told her to be very careful as she might fall and when you come, she would then be useless. She replied that you would not find her anymore. Then, in reply, I said to her that heaven would not permit that any untoward circumstances should happen to her as you prayed hard for her health and happiness.

I have not yet talked with Titay, but, indeed, with Captain José, who told me he has not received those two letters that you mentioned. He received only one which he answered, sending it to Barcelona.

Do you know what V. says? You have put one over Manrique [The Spanish name of the figure Manrico (a gipsy troubadour and officer in the army of the Prince of Urgel who is later revealed to be the kidnapped brother of the Count di Luna in the opera mentioned next-- rly] of Il Trovatore [An opera with lyrics by Cammarano and music Giuseppe Verdi. It is based on the Spanish Drama, El Trovador by Antonio Garcia Gutierrez - rly] inasmuch as he has only one Leonor while you have two.

Leonor of the walled City, by dint of going back and forth to the house of Mrs. Facunda on San Marcelino Street at her mother’s orders has succeeded to put on a little weight. Poor mother, she does not guess right the best way to cure her daughter! Don’t you think that it would suit her better to take a trip to that country while you are there? I believe so. I have no scruple whatever in this prescription; but according to what I have been told this family is going to Calamba.

Poor C. She returns to her parents because the dear one lost his job and lacks the means to live on in this country. He was obliged to return to Spain leaving behind, not money, but a tiny boy who is called not Nicolas but Manuel like the father.

Poloeng is still single and attends almost all dances. She is still good-looking.

Our friend Zamora recently lost his dear father. This poor man died of serosity.* They say: “Misfortune never comes alone; it is always accompanied.”

M. suffered two wedding reverses: One with friend V. which was dropped on account of physical disability; another with T., who is also a Filipino. This gentleman, after promising to marry her, went to a province to settle some accounts and when he returned here, he was already married to another woman. Does this knavery seem mild to you?

Mentang, Tentay, and Oñang send you their sincere regards. The first one requests me to tell you to look for her letter addressed to Barquillo Street in reply to your condolence for the death of her father and brother.

As to the Jogo girls, I see them at the window some afternoons when I pass in front of their house, and I believe they are well.

I advance my sincere congratulations on your forthcoming graduation in medicine and I regret not to be able to attend the act of your investiture in order to give you a tight embrace.

Be kind enough to tell Ceferino to devote some of his leisure hours to writing me and to receive my affectionate regards and those of my parents and Pep.

Compadres Teong, Rosauro, Miguela, Tincho, and other relatives send you their sincerest regards.

It is not known whether Pichon and Mariano Lopez are going to that capital city because they are not decided. At any rate Galicano is going, but it is not know when.

Friend Dadivas ends you his compliments.

Galla also, now a real landlord of students, sends you his regards.

Receive those of my father and brother and my most affectionate and fond regards with a Babylonian embrace.

From your very affectionate chronicler,

José Cecilio

_____________

* [The following understanding of Serosity come from medical books of the period – rly] “‘Serosity’ is an old term for the serum of the blood.” [Source: The New Sydenham Society’s Lexicon of Medicine and the Applied Sciences. (Based on Mayne’s Lexicon), vol. V (London: The New Sydenham Society, MDCCCXCIX {1899})]. || [For “Serous Fluid or Serum”: “In physiology the liquid portion of the blood, which separates after coagulation, is named the serum, and this is taken as a type of fluids of more or less similar composition, consisting of a watery solution of albumin with certain salts. In pathology we have to deal with serum outside the blood-vessels, either as a more dropsical accumulation, or as a consequence of inflammation. It may be thus met with in the cellular tissue under the skin or a mucus membrane, and in other parts: in serious cavities; in certain organs, as the lungs and the ventricles of the brain; or as a discharge from the surface of the skin, as in cases of eczema. Its precise composition varies considerably under different circumstances. Clinically serous fluid is, as a rule, of most importance on account of its mechanical effects, when it accumulates in quantity in various parts, and these effects may be most serious. Its presence can usually be detected by objective or physical examination. The treatment required will either that for dropsy or inflammation, modified by local considerations, according to the principles laid down in other special articles.” By Frederick T. Robins. A Dictionary of Medicine Including General Pathology, General Therapeutics, Hygene, and the Disease Peculiar to Women and Children. Seventh Edition. Richard Quain, editor (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1884), page 1421.]