Of Lima, through whose groves in after years,
Mournful yet sweet, Diogo’s amorous lute
Prolong’d its tuneful echoes_.—III. p. 27.
Diogo Bernardes, one of the best of the Portugueze poets, was born on
the banks of the Lima, and passionately fond of its scenery. Some of
his sonnets will bear comparison with the best poems of their kind.
There is a charge of plagiarism against him for having printed several
of Camoens’s sonnets as his own; to obtain any proofs upon this subject
would be very difficult; this, however, is certain, that his own
undisputed productions resemble them so closely in unaffected tenderness,
and in sweetness of diction, that the whole appear like the works of one
author.
* * * * *
_Auria itself is now but one wide tomb
For all its habitants._—III. p. 29.
The present Orense. The Moors entirely destroyed it; _depopulavit usque
ad solum_, are the words of one of the old brief chronicles. In 832,
Alonzo el Casto found it too completely ruined to be restored.—_Espana
Sagrada_, xvii. p. 48.
* * * * *
_That consecrated pile amid the wild,
Which sainted Fructuoso in his zeal
Rear’d to St. Felix, on Visonia’s banks._—IV. p. 38.
Of this saint, and the curious institutions which he formed, and the
beautiful track of country in which they were placed, I have given an
account in the third edition of Letters from Spain and Portugal, vol. i.
p. 103.
* * * * *
_Sacaru ... indignantly
Did he toward the ocean bend his way,
And shaking from his feet the dust of Spain,
Took ship, and hoisted sail through seas unknown
To seek for freedom._—IV. p. 43.
This tale, which is repeated by Bleda, rests on no better authority than
that of Abulcacim[10], which may, however, be admitted, so far as to show
that it was a prevalent opinion in his time.
Antonio Galvam, in his _Tratado dos Descobrimentos Antigos e Modernos_,
relates a current, and manifestly fabulous story, which has been supposed
to refer to Sacaru, and the companions of his emigration. “They say,”
he says, “that at this time, A. D. 1447, a Portugueze ship sailing out
of the Straits of Gibraltar, was carried by a storm much farther to the
west than she had intended, and came to an island where there were seven
cities, and where our language was spoken; and the people asked whether
the Moors still occupied Spain, from whence they had fled after the loss
of King Don Rodrigo. The contramaster of the ship said, that he brought
away a little sand from the island, and sold it to a goldsmith in Lisbon,
who extracted from it a good quantity of gold. It is said that the
Infante D. Pedro, who governed at that time, ordered these things to be
written in the Casa do Tombo. And some will have it that these lands and
islands at which the Portugueze touched, were those which are now called
the Antilhas and New Spain.” (P. 24.)
This Antilia, or Island of the Seven Cities, is laid down in Martin
Behaim’s map; the story was soon improved by giving seven bishops to the
seven cities: and Galvam has been accused by Hornius of having invented
it to give his countrymen the honour of having discovered the West
Indies! Now it is evident that Antonio Galvam relates the story as if he
did not believe it,—_contam_—they relate,—and, _diz_, it is said,—never
affirming the fact, nor making any inference from it, but merely stating
it as a report: and it is certain, which perhaps Hornius did not know,
that there never lived a man of purer integrity than Antonio Galvam;
a man whose history is disgraceful, not to his country, but to the
government under which he lived, and whose uniform and unsullied virtue
entitles him to rank among the best men that have ever done honour to
human nature.
The writers who repeat this story of the Seven Islands and their bishops,
have also been pleased to find traces of Sacaru in the new world, for
which the imaginary resemblances to Christianity which were found in
Yucatan and other places, serve them as proofs.—_Gregorio Garcia_,
_Origen de los Indios_, l. iv. c. 20.
The work of Abulcacim, in which the story first appears, has been roundly
asserted to be the forgery of the translator, Miguel de Luna. The
Portugueze academician, Contador de Argote, speaking of this romantic
history, acquits him of the fraud, which has with little reflection been
laid to his charge. Pedraça, he says, in the Grandezas de Granada, and
Rodrigo Caro, in the Grandezas de Sevilla, both affirm that the original
Arabic exists in the Escurial, and Escolano asserts the same, although
Nicholas Antonio says that the catalogues of that library do not make
mention of any such book. If Luna had forged it, it would not have had
many of those blunders which are observed in it; nor is there any reason
for imputing such a fraud to Luna, a man well skilled in Arabic, and
of good reputation. What I suspect is, that the book was composed by a
Granadan Moor, and the reason which induces me to form this opinion is,
the minuteness with which he describes the conquest which Tarif made of
those parts of the kingdom of Granada, of the Alpuxarras and the Serra
Neveda, pointing out the etymologies of the names of places, and other
circumstances, which any one who reads with attention will observe. As
to the time in which the composer of this amusing romance flourished, it
was certainly after the reign of Bedeci Aben Habuz, who governed, and was
Lord of Granada about the year 1013, as Marmol relates, after the Arabian
writers; and the reason which I have for this assertion is, that in the
romance of Abulcacim the story is told which gave occasion to the said
Bedeci Aben Habuz to set up in Granada that famous vane, which represents
a knight upon horseback in bronze, with a spear in the right hand, and a
club in the left, and these words in Arabic,—Bedeci Aben Habuz says, that
in this manner Andalusia must be kept! the figure moves with every wind,
and veers about from one end to another.—_Memorias de Braga_, t. iii. p.
120.
In the fabulous Chronicle of D. Rodrigo, Sacarus, as he is there called,
is a conspicuous personage; but the tale of his emigration was not then
current, and the author kills him before the Moors appear upon the stage.
He seems to have designed him as a representation of perfect generosity.
* * * * *
_All too long,
Here in their own inheritance, the sons
Of Spain have groan’d beneath a foreign yoke._—IV. p. 43.
There had been a law to prohibit intermarriages between the Goths and
Romans; this law Recesuintho annulled[11] observing in his edict, that
the people ought in no slight degree to rejoice at the repeal. It is
curious that the distinction should have existed so long; but it is found
also in a law of Wamba’s, and doubtless must have continued till both
names were lost together in the general wreck. The vile principle was
laid down in the laws of the Wisigoths, that such as the root is, such
ought the branch to be,—_gran confusion es de linage, quando el fiyo non
semeya al padre, que aquelo ques de la raiz, deba ser en a cima_, and
upon this principle a law was made to keep the children of slaves, slaves
also.
“Many men well versed in history,” says Contador de Argote, (Memorias de
Braga, 3. 273.) “think, and think rightly, that this was a civil war,
and that the monarchy was divided into two factions, of which the least
powerful availed itself of the Arabs as auxiliaries; and that these
auxiliaries made themselves masters, and easily effected their intent by
means of the divisions in the country.”
“The natives of Spain,” says Joam de Barros, “never bore much love to the
Goths, who were strangers and comelings, and when they came had no right
there, for the whole belonged to the Roman empire. It is believed that
the greater part of those whom the Moors slew were Goths, and it is said
that, on one side and on the other, in the course of two years there were
slain by the sword seven hundred thousand men. The Christians who escaped
chose that the name of Goths should be lost: and though some Castillians
complain that the race should be extinguished, saying with Don Jorge
Manrique,
_Pues la sangre de los Godos
y el linage y la nobleza
tan crecida,
por quantas vias y modos
se sume su grande alteza
en esta vida_,
I must say that I see no good foundation for this; for they were a proud
nation and barbarous, and were a long time heretics of the sects of
Arius and Eutychius and Pelagius, and can be praised as nothing except
as warriors, who were so greedy for dominion, that wherever they reached
they laid every thing bare like locusts, and therefore the emperor ceded
to them this country. The people who dwelt in it before were a better
race, always praised and feared and respected by the Romans, loyal
and faithful and true and reasonable: and if the Goths afterwards were
worthy of any estimation they became so here: for as plants lose their
bitterness and improve by being planted and translated into a good soil
(as is said of peaches), so does a good land change its inhabitants, and
of rustic and barbarous make them polished and virtuous.
“The Moors did not say that they came against the Christians, but against
the Goths, who had usurped Spain; and it appears that to the people of
the land it mattered little whether they were under Goths or Moors; or
indeed it might not be too much to say that they preferred the Moors, not
only because all new things and changes would be pleasing, but because
they were exasperated against the Goths for what they had done against
the Christians, (_i. e._ the Catholicks,) and for the bad government of
King Witiza.”
“You are not to think,” says the Chronicler, “that Count Don Julian and
the Bishop Don Orpas came of the lineage of the Goths, but of the lineage
of the Cæsars, and therefore they were not grieved that the good lineage
should be destroyed.”—_Chr. del K. D. Rodrigo_, p. i. c. 248.
* * * * *
_Favila._—V. p. 48.
Barrios, taking a punster’s licence in orthography, plays upon the name
of Pelayo’s father:—
——_del gran Favila (que centella
significa) Pelayo, marcial llama,
restauro el Leones reyno con aquella
luz que alcanzo la victoriosa rama_.
Coro de las Musas, p. 102.
* * * * *
_The Queen too, Egilona,—
Was she not married to the enemy,
The Moor, the Misbeliever?_—V. p. 50.
For this fact there is the unquestionable testimony of Isidorus Pacensis.
_Per idem tempus in Æra 735, anno imperii ejus 9. Arabum 97. Abdalaziz
omnem Hispaniam per tres annos sub censuario jugo pacificans, cum Hispali
divitiis et honorum fascibus cum Regina Hispaniæ in conjugio copulata,
filias Regum ac Principum pellicatas, et imprudenter distractas æstuaret,
seditione suorum facta, orationi instans, consilio Ajub, occiditur;
atque eo Hispaniam retinente, mense impleto, Alahor in regno Hesperiæ
per principalia jussa succedit, cui de morte Abdallaziz ita edicitur. ut
quasi consilio Egilonis Regiæ conjugis quondam Ruderici regis, quam sibi
sociaberat, jugum Arabicum a sua cervice conaretur avertere, et regnum in
vasum Hiberiæ sibimet retemptare._—Espana Sagrada, t. viii. 302.
Florez relates the story in the words of the old translation of an Arabic
original imputed to Rasis. “When Belazin, the son of Muza, remained for
Lord of Spain, and had ordered his affairs right well, they told him
tidings of Ulaca, who had been the wife of King D. Rodrigo, that she was
a right worthy dame, and right beautiful, and of a great lineage, and
that she was a native of Africa; whereupon he sent for her, and ordered
that beasts should be given her, and much property, and men-servants and
maid-servants, and all things that she could require, till she could
come to him. And they brought her unto him, and when he saw her, he was
well pleased with her, and said, Ulaca, tell me of thy affairs, and
conceal nothing from me; for thou knowest I may do with thee according
to my will, being my captive. And when she heard this, it increased the
grief which she had in her heart, and her sorrow was such, that she had
well nigh fallen dead to the ground, and she replied weeping and said,
Baron, what wouldst thou know more of my affairs? For doth not all the
world know, that I, a young damsel, being married with King D. Rodrigo,
was with him Lady of Spain, and dwelt in honour and in all pleasure,
more than I deserved; and therefore it was God’s will that they should
endure no longer. And now I am in dishonour greater than ever was dame
of such high state: For I am plundered, and have not a single palm of
inheritance; and I am a captive, and brought into bondage. I also have
been mistress of all the land that I behold. Therefore, Sir, have pity
upon my misfortunes; and in respect of the great lineage which you know
to be mine, suffer not that wrong or violence be offered me by any one;
and, Sir, if it be your grace you will ransom me. There are men I know
who would take compassion on me, and give you for me a great sum. And
Belazin said to her, Be certain that so long as I live, you shall never
go from my house. And Ulaca said, What then, Sir, would you do with me?
and Belazin said, I will that you should remain in my house, and there
you shall be free from all wretchedness, with my other wives. And she
said, In an evil day was I born, if it is to be true that I have been
wife of the honoured king of Spain, and now have to live in a stranger’s
house as the concubine and captive of another! And I swear unto God,
whose pleasure it is to dismay me thus, that I will rather seek my own
death as soon as I can; for I will endure no more misery, seeing that by
death I can escape it. And when Belazin saw that she thus lamented, he
said to her, Good dame, think not that we have concubines, but by our
law we may have seven wives, if we can maintain them, and therefore you
shall be my wife, like each of the others; and all things which your
law requires that a man should do for his wife, will I do for you; and
therefore you have no cause to lament; and be sure that I will do you
much honour, and will make all who love me serve and honour you, and you
shall be mistress of all my wives. To this she made answer and said, Sir,
offer me no violence concerning my law, but let me live as a Christian:
And to this Belazin was nothing loth and he granted it, and his marriage
was performed with her according to the law of the Moors; and every day
he liked her more, and did her such honour that greater could not be.
And it befell that Belazin being one day with Ulaca, she said to him,
Sir, do not think it ill if I tell you of a thing in which you do not act
as if you knew the custom. And he said, Wherein is it that I err? Sir,
said she, because you have no crown, for no one was ever confirmed in
Spain, except he had a crown upon his head. He said, This which you say
is nothing, for we have it not of our lineage, neither is it our custom
to wear a crown. She said, many good reasons are there why a crown is
of use, and it would injure you nothing, but be well for you, and when
you should wear your crown upon your head, God would know you and others
also by it: And she said, You would look full comely with it, and it
would be great nobleness to you, and be right fitting, and you should
wear in it certain stones, which will be good for you, and avail you.
And in a short time afterwards Belazin went to dwell at Seville, and he
carried Ulaca with him, and she took of her gold, and of her pearls, and
of her precious stones, which she had many and good, and made him the
noblest crown that ever was seen by man, and gave it him, and bade him
take it, and place it where it should be well kept; and Ulaca, as she
was a woman of understanding and prudence, ordered her affairs as well
as Belazin, so that he loved her much, and did great honour to her, and
did many of those things which she desired; so that he was well pleased
with the Christians, and did them much good, and showed favour unto
them.”—_Memorias de las Reynas Catholicas_, 1. p. 28.
The issue of this was fatal to Abdalaziz. In Albucacim’s history, it is
said that he was converted by this Christian wife, and for that reason
put to death by his father. Others have supposed that by means of her
influence he was endeavouring to make himself King of Spain, independent
of the Caliph. A characteristic circumstance is added. Egilona was very
desirous to convert her husband, and that she might at least obtain from
him some mark of outward respect for her images, made the door of the
apartment in which she kept them, so low, that he could not enter without
bowing.—_Bleda_, p. 214.
_Deixam a Abdalaziz, que de Bellona
Mamara o leite, por Rector da Hesperia;
Este caza co a inclyta Egilona,
Mulher de Dom Rodrigo, (o gram miseria!)
Tomou Coroa de ouro, e a Matrona
Lhe deu para a tomar larga materia,
Foi notado à misera raynha
Cazarse com hum Mouro tarn asinha._
Destruiçam de Espanha, p. 237.
The Character of this Queen is beautifully conceived by the author of
Count Julian:—
Beaming with virtue inaccessible
Stood Egilona; for her lord she lived,
And for the heavens that raised her sphere so high:
All thoughts were on her—all beside her own.
Negligent as the blossoms of the field,
Arrayed in candour and simplicity,
Before her path she heard the streams of joy
Murmur her name in all their cadences,
Saw them in every scene, in light, in shade,
Reflect her image; but acknowledged them
Hers most complete when flowing from her most.
All things in want of her, herself of none,
Pomp and dominion lay beneath her feet
Unfelt and unregarded: now behold
The earthly passions war against the heavenly!
Pride against love; ambition and revenge
Against devotion and compliancy—
Her glorious beams adversity hath blunted,
And coming nearer to our quiet view,
The original clay of coarse mortality
Hardens and flaws around her.
* * * * *
_One day of bitter and severe delight._—VI. p. 60.
I have ventured to borrow this expression from the tragedy of Count
Julian. Nothing can be finer than the passage in which it occurs.
_Abdalazis._ Thou lovest still thy country?
_Julian._ Abdalazis,
All men with human feelings love their country.
Not the high-born or wealthy man alone,
Who looks upon his children, each one led
By its gay hand-maid, from the high alcove,
And hears them once a-day; not only he
Who hath forgotten, when his guest inquires
The name of some far village all his own;
Whose rivers bound the province, and whose hills
Touch the last cloud upon the level sky:
No; better men still better love their country.
’Tis the old mansion of their earliest friends,
The chapel of their first and best devotions;
When violence, or perfidy, invades,
Or when unworthy lords hold wassail there,
And wiser heads are drooping round its moats,
At last they fix their steady and stiff eye
There, there alone—stand while the trumpet blows,
And view the hostile flames above its towers
Spire, with a bitter and severe delight.
* * * * *
_Restoring in thy native line, O Prince,
The sceptre to the Spaniard._—VII. p. 71.
This was a favourite opinion of Garibays, himself a Biscayan, but he has
little better proof for it than the fact, that Gothic names disappeared
with Roderick, and that Pelayo and his successors drew their nomenclature
from a different stock. He says, indeed, that ancient writings are not
wanting to support his opinion. Some rude commentator has written against
this assertion in the margin of my copy, _miente Garibay_; and I am
afraid the commentator is the truer man of the two.
There is a fabulous tale of Pelayo’s birth, which, like many other
tales of no better authority, has legends and relics to support it. The
story, according to Dr. D. Christoval Lozano, in his history of Los
Reyes Nuevos de Toledo, is this. Luz, niece to Egilona, and sister of
Roderick, dwelt at Toledo, in the palace of King Egica. Duke Favila, her
father’s brother, fell in love with her, and came from his residence in
Cantabria to ask her in marriage, expecting to find no other obstacle
than the dispensable one of consanguinity. But it so happened, that
the King was wooing Luz to become his concubine; her refusal made him
jealous, as he could not conceive that it proceeded from any cause
except love for another, and as his temper and power were not to be
provoked without danger, Favila dared not openly make his suit. He and
his mistress therefore met in private, and plighted their vows before an
image of the Virgin. The consequences soon became apparent,—the more so,
because, as Dr Lozano assures us, there were at that time no fashions
to conceal such things,—_Y mas que en aquella era no se avian inventado
los guarda-infantes_. The king observed the alteration in her shape, and
placed spies upon her, meaning to destroy the child and punish the mother
with the rigour of the law, death by fire being the punishment for such
an offence. Luz was well aware of the danger. She trusted her _Camarera_
and one servant: They made an ark: She herself, as soon as the infant was
born, threw water in his face, and baptised him by the name of Pelayo: a
writing was placed with him in the ark, requesting that whoever should
find it would breed up the boy with care, for he was of good lineage.
Money enough was added to support him for eight years, and the ark was
then launched upon the Tagus, where it floated down the stream all night,
all day, and all the following night. On the second morning it grounded
near Alcantara, and was found by Grafeses, who happened to be Luz’s
uncle. The king’s suspicion being confirmed by the sudden alteration in
the lady’s appearance, he used every means to detect her, but without
avail; he even ordered all children to be examined who had been born
in or around Toledo within three months, and full enquiry to be made
into the circumstances of their births: To the astonishment of later
historians, 35,000 of that age were found, and not one among them of
suspicious extraction. The tale proceeds in the ordinary form of romance.
The lady is accused of incontinence, and to be burnt, unless a champion
defeats her accuser. Favila of course undertakes her defence, and of
course is victorious. A second battle follows with the same success, and
fresh combats would have followed, if a hermit had not brought the king
to repentance. Grafeses in due time discovers the secret, and restores
the child to his parents.
This fabulous chronicle seems to be the oldest written source of this
story, but some such tradition had probably long been current. The ark
was shown at Alcantara, in the convent of St. Benito, and a description
of it, with reasons why its authenticity should be admitted, may be found
in _Francisco de Pisa’s Description de Toledo_, l. iii. c. i.
* * * * *
_And in thy name,
Accept the Crown of Thorns she proffers me._—VII. p. 72.
Godfrey was actually crowned with thorns in Jerusalem,—a circumstance
which has given rise to a curious question in heraldry,—thus curiously
stated and commented by Robert Barret, in that part of his long poem
which relates to this Prince:—
[Sidenote: To free man from Hell.]
A Prince religious, if ever any,
Considering the age wherein he lived,
Vice-hater great, endued with virtues many,
True humilized, void of mundane pride;
For though he now created were great king,
Yet would he not as royal pomp requires,
Encrowned be with crownet glistering
Of gold and gems to mundains vain desires;
But with a pricking, pricking crown of thorn,
Bearing thereto a Christian reverence,
Sith Heaven’s King, man’s-Redeemer, did not scorn
To wear such crown within that city’s fence,
When as, cross-loden, humblely he went,
All cowring under burden of that wood,
To pay the pain of man’s due punishment,
And free from Pluto’s bands Prometheus brood.
[Sidenote: The foolishness of Heralds.]