The following equations—the first element being Old Spanish and the
second modern—may facilitate the reading of the 13th and 14th century
texts:
_b_ = _b_ and _v_; _ç_ = _c_ (before _e_, _i_), and _z_ (before _a_,
_o_, _u_); _e_ = _e_ and _y_; initial _f_ = _f_ and _h_; _i_ = _i_, _j_,
_g_ (before _e_, _i_), _y_; _l_ = _l_ and _ll_; _ll_ = _l_ and _ll_;
_mn_ = _mbr_; _nn_ = _ñ_ and _n_; _ny_ = _ñ_; _nb_ = _mb_; _np_ = _mp_;
_pl_ (initial) = _ll_; _rr_ = _r_ and _rr_; _ss_ = _s_; final _t_ = _d_;
_u_ = _u_, _b_, _v_; _v_ = _b_, _v_, _u_; _x_ = _x_ and _j_; _y_ = _i_
and _y_; _z_ = _z_ and _c_ (before _e_, _i_). Initial _h_ may be
suppressed; _h_ (_trihunfo_) and _y_ (_peyor_) may intervene between
vowels. For modern Spanish equivalents of the more difficult Old Spanish
words see the _Glosario_.
AVENTURA AMOROSA. This anonymous poem, first published by M. Morel-Fatio
(_Romania_, XVIII), is by him attributed to the thirteenth century. It
is, therefore, one of the oldest Spanish lyrics extant. In the
manuscript it is followed, or continued, by another poem, a _Debate
between Wine and Water_. By reason of its subject, M. Morel-Fatio
entitled our piece a _Poème d’Amour_; the present title is the one which
it bears in Menéndez y Pelayo’s _Antología de poetas líricos
castellanos_, vol. I. In the manuscript occurs the statement: “_Lupus me
feçit de Moros_”; but this Lupus de Moros may have been only the scribe.
The manner of the poem is that of the French and Provençal
_pastourelles_, _pastorelas_, whose octosyllabic metre is also imitated,
somewhat irregularly, by the Spanish poet. Some of the metrical
irregularities may be scribal only.
*Page 3.*—l. 6. *dueñas*: the MS. shows no _tilde_ in this and other
cases where the modern language has it.
l. 7. The MS. has *tryança*.
l. 10. *cortesía*: i.e., the totality of qualities marking a gentleman;
cf. the modern *cortesanía*.
l. 18. *tocas*: the truncated imperfect subjunctive occurs frequently in
Old Spanish texts. Cf. p. 4, l. 11.
*Page 4.*—l. 7. *ovi miedo*: *haber* was regularly used in Old Spanish
as an independent verb taking a direct object. It is still so employed
in a few petrified expressions (*habérselas con uno*) and in the
impersonal construction.
l. 17. *la calor*: a number of abstracts in _-or_ were treated as
feminine in Old Spanish.
l. 18. *olíen*, l. 19. *teníe*. Under certain conditions the imperfect
indicative endings _ia_, etc., were weakened to _ie_, etc. These lines
seem to show assonance instead of rhyme.
l. 20. *es*, *sson*. The modern distinctions between *ser* and *estar*
were not observed in early Spanish.
l. 29. *non ... peyor*, _not the very worst_.
*Page 5.*—l. 6. *á rrazón*, _well proportioned_.
ll. 31-32. The rhyme is imperfect or shows dialectal influence.
l. 32. *cortesa*, an analogical feminine form due, doubtless, to the
influence of national and other locative adjectives in _-es_, _-esa_.
l. 33. *Te ... bien*, _loves thee so very much_.
*Page 6.*—l. 5. *la mía señor*. The article often appeared with the
attributive possessive adjective in Old Spanish. The noun *señor* was
both masculine and feminine in early Spanish, as its etymon, the
adjective _senior_, was in Latin.
l. 17. *un su mesaiero*, _a messenger of his_. Cf. l. 27, *es meu
amigo*, _this friend of mine_, and l. 31, *una mi çinta*, _a ribbon of
mine_.
ll. 21-22. The MS. has *buenas yentes* and *punnientes*.
*Page 7.*—l. 3. This line is an emendation of Morel-Fatio’s.
l. 12. *fe que devedes*, _by the faith that you owe, on your honor_.
l. 18. *Por ... muerto*, _I nearly died_.
GONZALO DE BERCEO. Gonzalo de Berceo is the first Castilian poet known
to us by name. He is mentioned in documents ranging in date from the
second decade to the middle of the thirteenth century. From his
birthplace, the village of Berceo, he early passed to the monastery of
San Millán de la Cogolla, and there he remained, as a secular priest,
throughout his life. Most of his work consists of religious, legendary
and narrative verse, in the production of which he was most prolific. He
has also left us one long profane poem, the _Libro de Alexandre_, giving
the usual mediæval account of the adventures of Alexander the Great.
Berceo seems to have been the first to use the metrical form called
_cuaderna vía_—quatrains of fourteen-syllabled lines with a single
rhyme—which he employed consistently and which had considerable vogue in
the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Abandoning that narrative verse
form, he strikes a true lyric note in the _Cántica de la Virgen_, a
somewhat irregular octosyllabic song inserted in his longer poem, _El
duelo de la Virgen_. As this lyric resembles watch-songs found in Latin
and German Easter-plays, it has been supposed that Berceo borrowed it
from a lost Easter play in Spanish. Like them it represents Mary as
entreating the apostles to guard the body of the buried Christ. The
collected poems of Berceo are to be found in volume 57 of the
_Biblioteca de autores españoles_.
*Page 8.*—l. 1. *velar*, the infinitive with imperative force.
l. 4. *Dios*: as the rhyme shows, this word has the older accent in the
first vowel.
JUAN RUIZ, ARCIPRESTE DE HITA. Archpriest of Hita, in the vicinity of
Guadalajara, Ruiz, the most original Old Spanish poet, wrote during the
first half of the fourteenth century. On account of his irregular life,
his ecclesiastical superiors found it necessary to imprison him. His
whole career reminds one strongly of that of the French cleric François
Villon, like whom Ruiz is one of the first modern poets to strike a
peculiarly personal note. In his _Libro de buen amor_ (published in the
_Biblioteca de autores castellanos_, volume 57, as _Libro de los
cantares_) he is frankly improper and shows in a marked degree the
influence of Ovid’s works, of the _Pamphilus de Amore_, a mediæval
imitation of Ovid, and of various Old French works. The selections here
given are taken from the _Biblioteca_ volume already cited; cf. also the
edition of the _Libro de buen amor_ by J. Ducamin (_Bibliothèque
méridionale_, 1e série, tome VI).
*Page 9.*—l. 22. There is a metrical translation of this poem by
Longfellow, first published in _The North American Review_, April, 1833,
and reprinted in the Riverside edition of Longfellow’s works, 1886, vol.
VI, pp. 414 ff. Longfellow imitates the _cuaderna vía_ arrangement of
the original.
l. 25. *Ca ... corazon*, _for the heart desires but little and that well
said_.
*Page 10.*—l. 8. *Mucho ... mientes*, _much more you will find wherever
you direct your attention_.
*Page 11.*—l. 3. *en la salutaçion*: cf. Longfellow’s translation _in
anticipation_.
l. 6. *tomar*, cf. note p. 8, l. 1.
l. 8. In this song the author abandons the _cuaderna vía_ for the
octosyllabic verse. Occasional imperfections of rhyme are noticeable
here.
l. 13. *Habémoslo a*: *haber a* equivalent to *haber de*; the *lo* is
used indefinitely.
l. 28. *De quien*, equivalent to *por quien*.
*Page 12.*—l. 3. *Aquien*, i.e., *á quien*.
l. 8. *pecado*, i.e., *diablo*.
*Page 13.*—l. 4. *bien fechores*, i.e., *bienhechores*.
DON JUAN MANUEL. If the poem in octaves, _A la muerte del Príncipe D.
Alfonso_, of which several stanzas are here given, were really the work
of the Infante D. Juan Manuel (1282-1347), the author of the famous
framework of prose tales entitled the _Conde Lucanor_, it would belong
in the place here assigned to it. But the poems of the Infante are
probably lost, and the pieces which, like the present one, are
attributed to Don Juan Manuel in the _Cancionero General_, the
_Cancioneiro_ of Resende, and other collections, must belong to the
writer so called who was attached to the court of King Emanuel of
Portugal († 1524) and composed in both Spanish and Portuguese. Cf.
Ticknor, _History of Spanish Literature_, vol. I, p. 59, note 27, and
Gröber’s _Grundriss der romanischen Philologie_, Band II, 2. Abteilung,
p. 265, note 1, p. 270, note 5.
EL CANCILLER PERO LÓPEZ DE AYALA. One of the most important figures of
the fourteenth century. Active in court and camp, he still found time to
produce much prose and verse. He was a trusted servant of Don Pedro and
the three succeeding monarchs, and was Chancellor of Castile from 1398
on. Several times taken in battle, he was once imprisoned at Oviedes for
fifteen months. He was at one time the captive of the Black Prince, but
there is probably no truth in the account that he was carried a prisoner
to England.
Ayala’s most important work in verse is the satirical and didactic
_Rimado de Palacio_ (published in the _Biblioteca de Autores Españoles_,
vol. 57). Here, in somewhat over 1600 stanzas, the author assails all
abuses—social, political and others—of the time. Not merely the decay in
court life, but general social degeneracy is his main theme. The first
part of the poem consists of 705 strophes in _cuaderna vía_. In the
second part, which opens with our first _cantar_, we find plaints,
prayers and songs to the Virgin interspersed among the didactic and
satiric passages. The last are still in _cuaderna vía_; the former
elements, more lyric in their nature, show the use of various measures,
with a particular influence of Provençal and Galician forms. They mark
Ayala as one of the earliest of the court poets, who were to become so
numerous in the reign of Juan II.
*Cantar*. The shorter lines are arranged in _redondillas_. Note the
inner rhymes in the longer lines, which might also be divided into
octosyllabic verses.
*Page 14.*—l. 9. *dada*. Occasionally the Old Spanish participle
conjugated with *haber* is found agreeing with its object.
*Page 15.*—l. 13. *Cantar á la Virgen*. This octosyllabic song begins
with stanza 830 of the _Rimado de Palacio_.
l. 17. With the epithets here applied to Mary compare those addressed to
the Spouse in the _Song of Songs_, with whom she has been often
identified by the exegetists.
LA DANZA DE LA MUERTE. This anonymous poem of seventy-nine octaves
belongs to the general category of poetical and pictorial works, which
in the Occident, and especially in the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries, celebrated the triumph of Death over all earthly creatures.
The original form may have been that of a pantomime. The Spanish poem
(published in full in the _Biblioteca de autores españoles_, vol. 57) is
probably a version of an earlier French poem. Its date has been
variously estimated. Baist (Gröber’s _Grundriss der romanischen
Philologie_, II, p. 428, note) would place it in the middle of the
fifteenth century. Cf. W. Seelmann, _Die Totentänze des Mittelalters_,
Leipzig, 1893.
*Page 16.*—l. 24. *en ... durante*, i.e., _in the world throughout its
duration_.
*Page 17.*—l. 2. *quando ... traspasante*, i.e., _when I discharge this
cruel, piercing arrow of mine_.
l. 27. *de ... forçado*, _must perforce die_.
*Page 19.*—l. 29. *a tan syn pauor*, _so fearlessly_.
REVELACIÓN DE UN ERMITAÑO. This anonymous vision in twenty-five octaves
(published in the _Biblioteca_, vol. 57) is of the class of _Debates
between the Body and the Soul_, common in the Middle Ages. Cf. the
_Visión de Filiberto_, published by Toledo in the _Zeitschrift f.
romanische Philologie_, II, 40, and for a Middle-English version see
Mätzner, _Altenglische Sprachproben_, I, 90. See also C. Fritzsche, _Die
lateinischen Visionen des Mittelalters_, in _Romanische Forschungen_,
II, 279 ff., III, 337 ff.
*çiençia gaya*, _art of poetry_; a term of Provençal origin.
*Page 21.*—l. 9. *prima*, the canonical hour _prime_.
l. 11. *hera*: the *era española* began thirty-eight years before the
Christian era.
l. 16. *el*, found in early Spanish before feminine nouns not beginning
with accented _a_. Cf. p. 28, l. 6, *un espesura*.
EL ALMIRANTE DIEGO FURTADO DE MENDOZA. The Admiral Furtado de Mendoza
was the father of the Marqués de Santillana (cf. p. 34). Far less
important as a poet than his more inspired son, he nevertheless
possessed abundant lyric gifts, of which the present song (published by
Amador de los Ríos, _Historia de la literatura española_, vol. V) gives
evidence. It is a dance-song of a kind called _cossante_ by the author.
Portuguese-Galician influence is clear in the Admiral’s poems.
ALFONSO ÁLVAREZ DE VILLASANDINO. One of the most important _trovadores_
at the court of Juan II (1406-54). He wrote in both Galician and
Castilian, and most of his poems, which are in the conventional
Provençal manner, are to be found in the _Cancionero_ of Baena (ed.
Leipzig, 1860). In expression they are frequently coarse and
vituperative. Villasandino’s several songs in praise of Seville seem to
have been composed for pecuniary compensation; cf. F. Wolf, _Studien zur
Gesch. der span. etc., Literatur_, Berlin, 1859, p. 200, note.
*Page 24.*—l. 17. *alta compaña*, i.e., the Giralda, the famous tower of
the Cathedral of Seville.
*Page 25.*—l. 9. *mesura*, i.e., _measure_, with the connotation so
customary in Provençal poetry, of _moderation_, _dignity_ and _grace_ in
all things.
MICER FRANCISCO IMPERIAL. The son of a Genovese goldsmith established in
Seville, Imperial was one of the first to import an Italian influence
into Spanish poetry. His poems (published in the _Cancionero_ of Baena)
mark the beginning of an allegorizing tendency in Castilian literature
which harks back to Dante. The latter, Imperial constantly imitates and
quotes, as he does in the present _decir_, or short poem.
*Page 25.*—l. 16. *Rribera del rio*, _on the bank of the river_.—Triana:
a suburb of Seville, from which it is separated by the river.
l. 20. *santa Ana*: a church and a square of Seville.
l. 27. *al que dixo*: *Ave*, i.e., to the Archangel Gabriel.
l. 28. *paraysso*: the doubled _s_ here and in *rysso*, v. 25, is
inorganic; cf. the rhymes quiso and lyso.
*Page 26.*—l. 4. *señores*, cf. note to p. 6, l. 5, and see l. 11 below.
RUY PÁEZ DE RIBERA. The poems of Páez de Ribera, like those of Imperial,
are contained in the _Cancionero_ of Baena, and show similar tendencies
toward the allegory. They are marked, furthermore, by a spirit of unrest
which is somewhat socialistic in its expression.
*Page 27.*—l. 7. *veer lo caydo*, i.e., *verlo caído*.
l. 25. *mesurada*, cf. note to p. 25, l. 9.
EL CONDESTABLE ÁLVARO DE LUNA. Prominent among the two hundred or more
poets of the reign of Juan II. was the courtier Álvaro de Luna. For a
long time he enjoyed the favor of the monarch, who even raised him to
one of the highest ranks to which a subject could attain, but, incurring
the hatred of his fickle master, he was persecuted and finally executed
in 1453. His tragic career has been several times treated in Spanish
verse and prose. In his poems conventional gallantry borders on what the
devout would call blasphemy.
*Page 28.*—l. 26. *E non ... vara*, i.e., _and I would not yield to
thee_.
FERNÁN PÉREZ DE GUZMÁN. The nephew of one poet, the Canciller López de
Ayala, and the uncle of another, the Marqués de Santillana, Pérez de
Guzmán has left us in the _Cancioneros_ a few poems in the
Provençal-Galician manner with traces of Italian influence. He is more
important as a prose writer than as a poet, being one of the best of the
early Spanish historians.
*Page 30.*—l. 12. This is the reading of this line in the _Cancionero_
of Baena (ed. 1860, II, p. 254), but the metre seems to require the
conjunction *é* after *prados*.
l. 30. *ryso*: *risa* is needed for the rhyme.
JUAN DE MENA. Mena, the Latin secretary of King Juan II. and a leader of
the stylistic poets of his court, became most noted as the author of the
allegorical poem _El Laberinto_ (also known as the _Trecientas_, from
the original number of its stanzas). Imitating the scheme of Dante’s
_Divina Commedia_, and largely influenced also by Lucan, Mena here seeks
to picture the vicissitudes of Fortune. Elaborate but cold, the work was
a great favorite with his contemporaries. At times, as in these octaves
celebrating the luckless Galician troubadour Macías, a martyr of love,
Mena rises to a respectable lyric height. Other ambitious poetical works
of his are the _Coronación_ and the _Coplas de los siete pecados
mortales_. Note the dactylic (—́ ‿ ‿) rhythm of the present _versos de
arte mayor_. For accounts of Macías, and the plays and novels dealing
with him, see F. Wolf, _Studien_, etc., p. 772, and Ticknor, _History of
Span. Literature_, I, 329 f.
RODRIGO COTA. A converted Hebrew, who has owed a great deal of his fame
to the false attribution to him of the _Coplas de Mingo Revulgo_ and of
the _Celestina_. A meritorious poem of Cota’s is the _Diálogo entre el
Amor y un Viejo_ (published by Menéndez y Pelayo in his _Antología de
poetas líricos castellanos_, vol. IV, p. 1). A burlesque ascribed to him
may be seen in the _Revue hispanique_, vol. I.
COPLAS DE MINGO REVULGO. This is one of several satires, lyrico-dramatic
in form, written during the reign of Enrique IV. of Castile († 1474). It
is in the nature of a dialogue in thirty-two stanzas, between two
shepherds, Mingo Revulgo, representing the more inferior class, and Gil
Arribato, representing the more elevated class, who discuss the moral
and social decay of the time and the dissolute behavior of the king. The
work has been attributed without warrant to Rodrigo Cota, Juan de Mena
and others. For the full text see Menéndez y Pelayo, _Antología_, III, 5
ff., and cf. Ticknor, I, 232 f., and Pidal in the _Cancionero_ of Baena
(ed. 1860, p. c).
*Page 32.*—l. 13. *Mingo Rebulgo*; *Mingo* = *Domingo*, and according to
early glosses *Rebulgo* is here an intensitive of *vulgo* = *cosa
pública*.
l. 21. *¿Non ... rejo?* A line of doubtful sense. Menéndez y Pelayo
would translate *te llotras* by *te alegras*. But *llotrarse* seems to
mean *vestirse*; hence a possible sense would be, _Do you not arm
yourself with good courage?_ (*rejo* = _vigor_, _strength_). Cf. the
translation in Ticknor (I, 233): “_Pray, are you broken down with
care_?”
*Page 33.*—l. 1. *Arribato*, possibly based on *arriba* and equivalent
to _The Elevated_.
l. 2. *en fuerte ... echamos*, i.e., _we made a very bad cast, we had
hard luck_.
l. 3. *Candaulo*, here for the king Enrique IV. Candaulo, or Candaule,
was a Lydian king.
l. 12. *nin roso nin velloso*, _nothing at all_.
l. 18. *tyenen de*, i.e., *han de*. According to the glosses, the three
ravenous she-wolves are the three persecutions—hunger, war and
pestilence—which Ezekiel promised to the Israelites in punishment for
their sins; cf. the three next stanzas.
ÍÑIGO LÓPEZ DE MENDOZA, MARQUÉS DE SANTILLANA. Perhaps the most
impressive literary figure of the fifteenth century. The nephew of López
de Ayala, he belongs partly to the Middle Ages, but largely also to the
Renaissance. Amador de los Ríos, who has given us the best edition of
his works (Madrid, 1852), as well as an excellent account of his life
and genius, divides Santillana’s productions into five classes: _obras
de amores_, _obras doctrinales é históricas_, _sonetos fechos al itálico
modo_, _obras devotas_, _obras de recreación_. Of these, two of the most
important are represented by our selections, viz., the _sonetos_ and the
_obras de amores_. Santillana is thought to have imported the sonnet
into Spain, and this poetical form does not represent his whole debt to
Italian literature, for in a great part of his work he stands under the
influence preëminently of Dante, but also of Petrarch and Boccaccio. The
Dantesque allegory plays a prominent part in his poetical vision (_not a
drama_), the _Comedieta de Ponza_, in the _Coronacion de Mossen Jordi_
and the _Infierno de enamorados_. Didactic or doctrinal in bent are the
_Diálogo de Bias contra Fortuna_, the _Proverbios_, and the _Doctrinal
de privados_, the last-named containing a bitter arraignment of his
unfortunate enemy Álvaro de Luna. The most original and most interesting
element of all his work is that represented by the _obras de amores_,
that is to say, the _serranillas_ (mountain-girl songs) or _vaqueiras_
(cowherd songs, a Galician word), such as the famous one on p. 35, the
_villancicos_ (a popular form with an _estribillo_ or refrain), etc. A
Provençal-Galician influence is, of course, discernible in these songs.
Santillana was deeply imbued with an admiration for classic letters. In
his prose _Carta al Condestable de Portugal_ he is the first real
historian of Spanish literature. Cf. Menéndez y Pelayo, _Antología_, V,
pp. lxxviii ff. and Ticknor, I, 331 ff.
*Page 34.*—l. 19. In tone this sonnet is paralleled by that of Quevedo
on p. 164 and of Núñez de Arce on p. 324.
*Page 35.*—l. 11. *Tabor*: Mount Tabor, the supposed scene of the
Transfiguration of Christ; cf. St. Matthew xvii., St. Mark ix., St. Luke
ix.
l. 12. *que se raçona*, _which is related_.
l. 13. *fija de Latona*, i.e., Diana.
l. 15. *punto*: strengthens the negation, _not at all_.
ll. 17-22. These two tercets suggest Dante’s sonnet, _Tanto gentile e
tanto onesta pare_ (in the _Vita nuova_).
l. 23. This is the most celebrated of all Santillana’s poems.
*Page 36.*—l. 29. As the caption states, this was composed by the
Marquis for his three daughters.
l. 34. *conosçellas*: i.e., *conocerlas*. The assimilation of the
infinitive _r_ to the _l_ of the appended pronoun is still frequent in
poetry.
LOPE DE ESTÚÑIGA. Estúñiga, or Stúñiga, fought under Alfonso V. of
Aragon (1416-58) in Italy, and played a prominent part in the passage of
honor held by his cousin, Suero de Quiñones. The fact that two of his
pieces stand at the head of a certain collection of poems—the
_Cancionero de Stúñiga_—caused it to be called by his name. Cf. Menéndez
y Pelayo, _Antología_, II, 163 ff.
SUERO DE QUIÑONES. Noted as the originator of the famous passage of
honor (_paso honroso_), which lasted from July 10 to August 9, 1434, and
during which, in order to dissolve his chivalric vow of wearing an iron
chain in his lady’s honor, he and nine other champions held the bridge
of Órbigo, near León, against all knightly comers. Cf. Menéndez y
Pelayo, _Antología_, II, 477.
JUAN ALFONSO DE BAENA. Probably a converted Jew. His verse is contained
in the _Cancionero de Juan Baena_, an anthology which he himself
compiled around 1445, as a typical collection of the productions of the
court poets of Juan II.’s time (cf. the ed. of Pidal, etc., Madrid,
1851, and of Michel, Leipzig, 1860).
MANUEL DE LANDO was one of these poets and a reputed disciple of
Imperial, like whom he shows the influence of Dante. The system of
poetical pleas, replications, replies, etc., here illustrated, was
frequently employed in the court poetry of the time. It is but a
continuation of the _jeu parti_ and the _joex partitz_ of French and
Provençal poetry.
*Page 39.*—ll. 7-8. *Quando ... ygualante*, i.e., _when it has recourse
to the sun, so that the latter, which has equalizing powers, may subdue
its diverging rays_.
*l. 11. otealla*, see note to p. 36, l. 34, and cf. *cobralla*, p. 40,
l. 2.
*l. 12.* *Syn ser demandante*: Baena contends that actual verbal wooing
is requisite.
*Page 40.*—l. 1. *vista de amor*: Lando, like the Italian _dolce stil
nuovo_ poets, maintained that the love-glance constitutes sufficient
wooing. Vergil is mentioned because of the importance which Dante gave
to him.
CARVAJAL (CARVAJALES). A Spanish poet who followed the Aragonese arms
into Italy during the reign of Alfonso V., and at Naples wrote in both
Spanish and Italian. Two _romances_ of his, contained in the _Cancionero
de Stúñiga_ (cf. ed. 1872)—a compilation of Spanish verse written at
Naples—are thought to be among the earliest of the kind. Cf. Menéndez y
Pelayo, _Antología_, II, 181 ff.
GÓMEZ MANRIQUE. Uncle of the more illustrious Jorge Manrique, and a poet
of considerable lyric merit. Cf. the edition of his _Cancionero_ by Paz
y Melia (1885). As in the work of his nephew, so in his poems, pathos is
a distinguishing trait. He had some success also in political satire.
*Page 40.*—l. 21. *lo no puedes*: this order of pronoun and negative
adverb is not infrequent in earlier Spanish.
*Page 41.*—l. 24. *solares*, i.e., mere _sites_ formerly occupied by
edifices.
JORGE MANRIQUE. The most eminently successful of the Spanish lyric poets
of the fifteenth century, Jorge Manrique fell in battle when but
thirty-eight years old. The greater part of his verse is to be found in
the _Cancionero General_ of 1511. The love-poems and humorous pieces
given there and in other _Cancioneros_ are of no decided merit, except
perhaps an occasional poem, such as that printed here on p. 42. His real
title to enduring fame is based upon the exquisite _coplas_, in which he
commemorates the death of his father, the Maestre de Santiago, and
proclaims the vanity and fleetingness of all earthly things. In
sweetness and mournfulness of tone, as in finish of form, they are
surpassed by nothing prior to them. The calm beauty and dignity of the
original, and to some degree its metre, have been excellently rendered
into English verse by Longfellow in his translation, beginning: “_O let
the soul her slumbers break_.” Cf. Ticknor, I, 366 ff., 391 ff.
*Page 44.*—l. 3. *se acabar*: an Old Spanish order of infinitive and
object pronoun.
l. 15. *yerva secreta*: so in Menéndez y Pelayo, _Antología_, III, 102.
The rhyme seems to require *yervas secretas*.
l. 20. Cf. St. John i. 10.
*Page 45.*—l. 1. *fué*: in modern Spanish *fuera* or *sería* would be
more natural.
ll. 5-6. *Es ... atendemos*, i.e., _It serves for the gaining of that
world (Paradise) which we await_, i.e., _hope for_.
l. 19. *D’ellas*: partitive, _some of them_.
*Page 46.*—l. 1. *arraval*: _limit, bounds_.
ll. 12-14. *Otros que por*, etc.: an ellipsis. *Otros* is in the same
construction as *unos* of l. 9. Translate: _How low and abject do people
deem others who, since they have nothing, maintain themselves by means
of undeserved offices!_
*Page 48.*—l. 19. *al Rey Don Juan*: Juan II. of Castile (1406-54), a
weak sovereign, but a munificent patron of letters in his splendid
court.
*Page 49.*—l. 10. *Don Enrique*: Enrique IV., the Impotent († 1474).
Unsuccessful in war, degraded and deposed by his subjects (1465), he was
finally allowed to end his life on the throne only after consenting to
the right of succession of his sister Isabel as opposed to that of his
alleged daughter Juana.
l. 33. *su hermano el innocente*: the Infante Alfonso, to whom the
throne was offered after the deposition of Enrique in 1465. Alfonso
died, poisoned it is said, in 1468.
*Page 50.*—l. 11. *Condestable*: Álvaro de Luna; cf. note to p. 28.
l. 13. *tan privado*, _so great a favorite_.
*Page 51.*—l. 25. Longfellow inserts here the translation of two other
stanzas not to be found in the text as published by Menéndez y Pelayo. A
legend has it that they were discovered in the pocket of the author
after his death on the battlefield.
l. 28. *El Maestre don Rodrigo*: Rodrigo Manrique, the father of the
poet, died in 1476.
*Page 52.*—l. 9. *para*: equivalent to *para con*.
l. 15. *Octaviano*: the allusions to events in ancient history conveyed
by this and the following names will readily suggest themselves.
l. 24. *En ... Archidano*: cf. Longfellow: “_The arm of Hector_.”
l. 28. *en ygualdad*, etc.: i.e., _in placidity of countenance_.
*Page 54.*—l. 5. The order of _Santiago de la Espada_ was a military and
religious one, the charter of which was confirmed by Pope Alexander III.
in 1175.
l. 16. *el*, i.e., *el rey*.
*Page 55.*—l. 34. *contra*, i.e., in battle against.
CARTAGENA: a member of a family of converted Jews that rose to
prominence in the Church. The present song is from the _Cancionero
General_ of 1511, and has been translated into English verse by Ticknor,
I, 398. The theme is the same as that of St. Theresa in the _Glosa_ on
p. 82.
RODRÍGUEZ DEL PADRÓN. Also called Juan Rodríguez de la Cámara, the last
representative of the Galician tradition in Spanish poetry. His poems
are in the _Cancionero General_, and the _Cancioneros_ of Stúñiga and
Baena. A legend makes him the lover of the wife of the Castilian monarch
of the time. Cf. the somewhat fictitious account of him given by Pidal
in the notes to the _Cancionero_ of Baena (ed. 1860, II, 347), and see
also Ticknor, I, 355.
*Page 58.*—l. 11. *Penetre*: in assonance only with *Contemple*.
MOSSÉN JUAN TALLANTE. The title of this personage may indicate an
Aragonese origin for him. His devotional poems are found in the
_Cancionero General_. A verse translation of this one is given by
Ticknor, I, 395; cf. note there.
EL COMENDADOR ESCRIBÁ. These exquisitely mournful verses are attributed
in the _Cancionero General_ to a Comendador Escribá (or Escrivá). They
appealed strongly to the great writers of the _siglo de oro_, for
Calderón cited the first stanza (with some variation) in his dramas _El
mayor monstruo los celos_ and _Manos blancas no ofenden_, Cervantes
repeated it in _Don Quijote_, II, ch. 38, and Lope de Vega wrote a gloss
upon the poem. Cf. Ticknor, I, 246 f. and II, 386, note. Both Longfellow
(Riverside ed. VI, p. 218) and Archdeacon Churton have made poetical
versions of it.
*Page 59.*—l. 9. *de contigo*, i.e., *de estar contigo*.
JUAN ÁLVAREZ GATO. The author of love-songs and devotional lyrics that
show in him considerable mastery of form. His individual _Cancionero_
exists in manuscript; only the poems found in the _Cancionero General_
have been published. Cf. _Romanische Forschungen_ of Vollmöller, X, 13.
*Page 60.*—l. 5. *Que aquel*; equivalent to *Que á aquel*.
ANÓNIMO. A wide-spread conceit, given Spanish form in this poem. Cf. C.
M. de Vasconcellos, _Antología Española_ (Leipzig, 1875), I, 53.