"E no he pace--e no tench gium ganeig."
I'm not at peace, but cannot war declare.
Petrarch's poem describes a lover's struggles; Sant Jordi's, the combats
of an inquisitive, troubled mind--something of a Faustus spirit, though
he sums up all, not by selling himself to the devil, but concluding
piously,--
But right oft flows from darkness-covered wrong,
And good may spring from seeming evil here.]
[Footnote 6: "All verses consisting of four trochaic feet appear to have
been originally comprehended under the name of _redondilla_, which,
however, came at length to be in preference usually applied to one
particular species of this description of verse. It is difficult to
suppose that the redondillas have been formed in imitation of bisected
hexameters, as some Spanish authors have imagined; they may with more
probability be considered a relic of the songs of the Roman soldiers. In
such verses every individual could, without restraint, pour forth the
feelings which love or gallantry dictated, accompanied by his guitar, as
little attention was paid to correctness in the distinction of long or
short syllables, as in the rhyme. When one of the poetic narratives,
distinguished by the name of romances was sung, line followed line
without constraint, the expression flowing with careless freedom, as
feeling gave it birth. When, however, romantic sentiments were to be
clothed in a popular lyric dress, to exhibit the playful turns of ideas
under still more pleasing forms, it was found advantageous to introduce
divisions and periods, which gave rise to regular strophes (_estancias_
and _coplas_). Lines, for the sake of variety, were shortened by halving
them; and thus the tender and impressive melody of the rhythm was
sometimes considerably heightened. Seduced by the example of the Arabs,
something excellent was supposed to be accomplished when a single
sonorous and unvarying rhyme was rendered prominent throughout all the
verses of a long romance. Through other romances, however, pairs of
rhymeless verses were allowed to glide amidst a variety of rhymed ones.
At length, at a later period, it was observed that, in point of
elegance, the _redondilla_ was improved by the change, when, instead of
perfect rhymes, imperfect ones, or sounds echoing vowels but not
consonants, were heard in the terminating syllables. Hence arose the
distinction between consonant and assonant verses, which has been
converted into a rhythmical beauty unknown to other nations. The period
of the invention of the redondillas was also nearly that of the dactylic
stanzas called _versos de arte mayor_, because their composition was
considered an art of a superior order. As the inventors of these stanzas
were ignorant of the true principles of prosody, the attention paid to
purity in the rhythm of the dactyles was even less than in the rhymes of
the redondillas. This may account for these verses falling into disuse,
as the progressive improvement of taste, which allowed the redondillas
to maintain their original consideration, was not reconcileable with the
half-dancing half-hobbling rhymed lines of the _versos de arte
mayor._"--_Boutervek_, Introduction. (Translation.)
Lord Holland observes, in the Appendix No. 3. to his "Life of Lope de
Vega:"--"Of rhymes the Spaniards have two sorts; the consonante or full
rhyme, which is nearly the same as the Italian; and the asonante, which
the ear of a foreigner would not immediately distinguish from a blank
termination. An asonante is a word that resembles another in the vowel
on which the last accent falls, as well as the vowel or vowels that
follow; but every consonant after the accented vowel must be different
from that in the corresponding syllable. Thus, tòs and _amor_, _pecho_,
fuego, _alamo_, paxaro, are all asonantes. In modern compositions, where
the asonante is used, every alternate verse is blank, but the poet is
not allowed to change the asonante till the poem is concluded. The old
writers, I believe, were no such restriction."
M. Gunins, a German annotator, followed by Mr. Lockhart, expresses his
opinion that "the stanza was composed in reality of two long lines, and
that these have been subsequently cut in four, exactly as we know to
have been the case in regard to another old English ballad stanza." See
Mr. Lockhart's Introduction to his Ancient Spanish Ballads.