NOTES

NOTESPOESÍAS DE LOS SIGLOS XIII-XVThe following equations—the first element being Old Spanish and the second modern—may facilitate the reading of the 13th and 14th century texts:b=bandv;ç=c(beforee,i), andz(beforea,o,u);e=eandy; initialf=fandh;i=i,j,g(beforee,i),y;l=landll;ll=landll;mn=mbr;nn=ñandn;ny=ñ;nb=mb;np=mp;pl(initial) =ll;rr=randrr;ss=s; finalt=d;u=u,b,v;v=b,v,u;x=xandj;y=iandy;z=zandc(beforee,i). Initialhmay be suppressed;h(trihunfo) andy(peyor) may intervene between vowels. For modern Spanish equivalents of the more difficult Old Spanish words see theGlosario.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, aDebate between Wine and Water. By reason of its subject, M. Morel-Fatio entitled our piece aPoème d’Amour; the present title is the one which it bears in Menéndez y Pelayo’sAntología 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 Provençalpastourelles,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 notildein this and other cases where the modern language has it.l. 7. The MS. hastryança.l. 10.cortesía: i.e., the totality of qualities marking a gentleman; cf. the moderncortesanía.344l. 18.tocas: the truncated imperfect subjunctive occurs frequently in Old Spanish texts. Cf.p. 4, l. 11.Page 4.—l. 7.ovi miedo:haberwas 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-orwere treated as feminine in Old Spanish.l. 18.olíen, l. 19.teníe. Under certain conditions the imperfect indicative endingsia, etc., were weakened toie, etc. These lines seem to show assonance instead of rhyme.l. 20.es,sson. The modern distinctions betweenserandestarwere 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 nounseñorwas both masculine and feminine in early Spanish, as its etymon, the adjectivesenior, 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. hasbuenas yentesandpunnientes.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, theLibro 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 calledcuaderna vía345—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 theCántica 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 theBiblioteca 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 hisLibro de buen amor(published in theBiblioteca de autores castellanos, volume 57, asLibro de los cantares) he is frankly improper and shows in a marked degree the influence of Ovid’s works, of thePamphilus de Amore, a mediæval imitation of Ovid, and of various Old French works. The selections here given are taken from theBibliotecavolume already cited; cf. also the edition of theLibro de buen amorby J. Ducamin (Bibliothèque méridionale, 1esérie, tome VI).Page 9.—l. 22. There is a metrical translation of this poem by Longfellow, first published inThe North American Review, April, 1833, and reprinted in the Riverside edition of Longfellow’s works, 1886, vol. VI, pp. 414 ff. Longfellow imitates thecuaderna víaarrangement 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 translationin anticipation.l. 6.tomar, cf.note p. 8, l. 1.346l. 8. In this song the author abandons thecuaderna víafor the octosyllabic verse. Occasional imperfections of rhyme are noticeable here.l. 13.Habémoslo a:haber aequivalent tohaber de; thelois used indefinitely.l. 28.De quien, equivalent topor 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 theConde 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 theCancionero General, theCancioneiroof 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’sGrundriss 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 didacticRimado de Palacio(published in theBiblioteca 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 incuaderna vía. In the second part, which opens with our firstcantar, we find plaints, prayers and songs to the Virgin interspersed among347the didactic and satiric passages. The last are still incuaderna 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 inredondillas. 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 withhaberis found agreeing with its object.Page 15.—l. 13.Cantar á la Virgen. This octosyllabic song begins with stanza 830 of theRimado de Palacio.l. 17. With the epithets here applied to Mary compare those addressed to the Spouse in theSong 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 theBiblioteca de autores españoles, vol. 57) is probably a version of an earlier French poem. Its date has been variously estimated. Baist (Gröber’sGrundriss 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 theBiblioteca, vol. 57) is of the class ofDebates between the Body and the Soul, common in the Middle Ages. Cf. theVisión de Filiberto, published by Toledo in theZeitschrift f. romanische Philologie, II, 40, and for a Middle-English348version see Mätzner,Altenglische Sprachproben, I, 90. See also C. Fritzsche,Die lateinischen Visionen des Mittelalters, inRomanische Forschungen, II, 279 ff., III, 337 ff.çiençia gaya,art of poetry; a term of Provençal origin.Page 21.—l. 9.prima, the canonical hourprime.l. 11.hera: theera españolabegan thirty-eight years before the Christian era.l. 16.el, found in early Spanish before feminine nouns not beginning with accenteda. 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 calledcossanteby the author. Portuguese-Galician influence is clear in the Admiral’s poems.ALFONSO ÁLVAREZ DE VILLASANDINO. One of the most importanttrovadoresat 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 theCancioneroof 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, ofmoderation,dignityandgracein 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 theCancioneroof 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 presentdecir, or short poem.349Page 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 doubledshere and inrysso, 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 theCancioneroof 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 theCancionerosa 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 theCancioneroof Baena (ed. 1860, II, p. 254), but the metre seems to require the conjunctionéafterprados.l. 30.ryso:risais 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 as350the author of the allegorical poemEl Laberinto(also known as theTrecientas, from the original number of its stanzas). Imitating the scheme of Dante’sDivina 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 theCoronaciónand theCoplas de los siete pecados mortales. Note the dactylic (—́ ‿ ‿) rhythm of the presentversos 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 theCoplas de Mingo Revulgoand of theCelestina. A meritorious poem of Cota’s is theDiálogo entre el Amor y un Viejo(published by Menéndez y Pelayo in hisAntología de poetas líricos castellanos, vol. IV, p. 1). A burlesque ascribed to him may be seen in theRevue 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 theCancioneroof Baena (ed. 1860, p. c).Page 32.—l. 13.Mingo Rebulgo;Mingo=Domingo, and according to early glossesRebulgois here an intensitive ofvulgo=cosa pública.l. 21.¿Non ... rejo?A line of doubtful sense. Menéndez y Pelayo would translatete llotrasbyte alegras. Butllotrarseseems to meanvestirse; 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?”351Page 33.—l. 1.Arribato, possibly based onarribaand equivalent toThe 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., thesonetosand theobras 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), theComedieta de Ponza, in theCoronacion de Mossen Jordiand theInfierno de enamorados. Didactic or doctrinal in bent are theDiálogo de Bias contra Fortuna, theProverbios, and theDoctrinal 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 theobras de amores, that is to say, theserranillas(mountain-girl songs) orvaqueiras(cowherd songs, a Galician word), such as the famous one onp. 35, thevillancicos(a popular form with anestribilloor 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 proseCarta al Condestable de Portugalhe is the first real historian of Spanish literature. Cf. Menéndez y Pelayo,Antología, V, pp. lxxviii ff. and Ticknor, I, 331 ff.352Page 34.—l. 19. In tone this sonnet is paralleled by that of Quevedo onp. 164and of Núñez de Arce onp. 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 theVita 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 infinitiverto thelof 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—theCancionero 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 theCancionero 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 LANDOwas 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 thejeu partiand thejoex partitzof French and Provençal poetry.353Page 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, seenote 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 Italiandolce stil nuovopoets, 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. Tworomancesof his, contained in theCancionero 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 hisCancioneroby 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., meresitesformerly 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 theCancionero Generalof 1511. The love-poems and humorous pieces given there and in otherCancionerosare of no decided merit, except perhaps an occasional poem, such as that printed here onp. 42. His real title to enduring fame is based upon the exquisitecoplas, 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 verse354by 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 requireyervas secretas.l. 20. Cf. St. John i. 10.Page 45.—l. 1.fué: in modern Spanishfueraorseríawould 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.Otrosis in the same construction asunosof 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 topara con.l. 15.Octaviano: the allusions to events in ancient history conveyed by this and the following names will readily suggest themselves.355l. 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 ofSantiago de la Espadawas 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 theCancionero Generalof 1511, and has been translated into English verse by Ticknor, I, 398. The theme is the same as that of St. Theresa in theGlosaonp. 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 theCancionero General, and theCancionerosof 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 theCancioneroof Baena (ed. 1860, II, 347), and see also Ticknor, I, 355.Page 58.—l. 11.Penetre: in assonance only withContemple.MOSSÉN JUAN TALLANTE. The title of this personage may indicate an Aragonese origin for him. His devotional poems are found in theCancionero 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 theCancionero Generalto a Comendador Escribá (or Escrivá). They appealed strongly to the great writers of thesiglo de oro, for Calderón cited the first stanza (with some variation) in his dramasEl mayor monstruo los celosandManos blancas no ofenden, Cervantes repeated it inDon 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 individualCancioneroexists in manuscript; only the poems found356in theCancionero Generalhave been published. Cf.Romanische Forschungenof Vollmöller, X, 13.Page 60.—l. 5.Que aquel; equivalent toQue á aquel.ANÓNIMO. A wide-spread conceit, given Spanish form in this poem. Cf. C. M. de Vasconcellos,Antología Española(Leipzig, 1875), I, 53.POESÍAS DE LOS SIGLOS XVI-XVIIJUAN DEL ENCINA. A member of the household of the Duke of Alba, whence he passed over into Italy. There he became master of the papal choir; he then took orders and went to Jerusalem. He is supposed to have died at Salamanca. Of his lyrics, which belong to his earlier period, the more important have been published by Menéndez y Pelayo,Antología, IV, 135 ff. His eclogues were, perhaps, the first Spanish dramas actually staged. Cf. F. Wolf,Studien, etc., pp. 270 ff.Page 64.—l. 14.mancilla: here used in the older sense ofpity,compassion.PEDRO MANUEL DE URREA. This noble published his lyrics in 1513 in a volume dedicated to his mother. They are partly secular and partly religious in nature, and show some Italian influence. Urrea also cultivates popular Spanish forms. HisCancionerohas been reprinted in theBiblioteca de escritores aragoneses. Secc. lit. II(1876). Cf. the verse translation of thisromancein Ticknor, I, 371.GIL VICENTE. A Portuguese disciple of Encina’s, who wrote dramas in both Portuguese and Spanish. The present song occurs in his play,El auto de la Sibila Casandra. See the edition of his works, Hamburg, 1834, and cf. Ticknor, I, 259, where there is a metrical translation of the song.JUAN BOSCÁN ALMOGAVER. A Catalonian who wrote in Castilian with great success. He served in the Spanish army in Italy, and was later a tutor to the Duke of Alba. His earlier verses are in the national manner. Prompted, it is said, by the Venetian ambassador Navagiero, he became an Italianate, and, following the357lead of Imperial and Santillana, was much more influential than they in establishing Italian verse methods in Castilian. He has made a large use of the hendecasyllable, theverso sueltoor blank verse (imitated from the Italianversi sciolti), theottava rimaand the sonnet, and has frequently imitated Dante, Petrarch, and thecinque centopoets of Italy. Among his more important poetical works are theHero y Leandroand theOctava rima, this latter being an allegorical poem from which the verses onp. 68 ff.are an excerpt. The influence of the Italian poet Bembo is clear in theOctava rima. In his translation of Castiglione’sCortegiano, Boscán showed a mastery of Castilian prose. Cf. W. T. Knapp,Las obras de Juan Boscán, Madrid, 1875, and G. Baist,Spanische Literatur(Gröber’sGrundriss, II, 2, 449 ff.).Page 68.—ll. 6-8. A reminiscence of Dante,Inferno, Canto V, the words of Francesca: “Nessun maggior dolore, | Che ricordarsi del tempo felice | Nella miseria.”l. 11.Por do:wherefore.Page 69.—l. 17. Cf. the translation of this stanza in Ticknor, I, 445.l. 30.quexaros, i.e.,quejaros.GARCILASO DE LA VEGA. This soldier-poet, a native of Toledo, took part in the battle of Pavia, distinguished himself in several succeeding campaigns, and was killed in an assault when but thirty-three years of age. A friend of Boscán, he represents the same Italianizing tendencies in Spanish literature. His verses, along with those of Boscán, were first published by the latter’s widow in 1543. The bulk of his poetry is small—some earlyvillancicos, a few eclogues and elegies, an epistle, severalcanciones, and between thirty and forty sonnets—but it suffices to show him to be a greater poet than Boscán. But very little of his work is in the old Castilian manner; the Italians are his masters in the important part of his production, although the eclogues show also a Vergilian influence. Cf.Biblioteca de autores españoles, vols. 32 and 42, and see Baist in Gröber’sGrundriss, II, 2, p. 449; Ticknor, I, 446 ff.Page 71.—l. 34.de consuno,at the same time.Page 72.—l. 12.Tomando: iffeis the object oftomando, then it is by a poetical license thatpresupuestois left invariable. Iffeis the subject oftomando, the participle agrees with the idea inlo que no entiendo.l. 17.nascí, i.e.,nací.358FERNANDO DE ACUÑA. A member of the court of Charles V. In imitation of Garcilaso de la Vega, he adopted the Italian measures, and was particularly successful with the sonnet. Cf. hisVarias poesías, Madrid, 1803-04, and see Ticknor I, 458 ff.GUTIERRE DE CETINA. Another follower of Garcilaso. Like the latter he was a soldier, and distinguished himself in Italy. About 1550 he appears to have wandered as far as Mexico. Cetina cultivated the sonnet with great skill. His madrigals are famous. Cf. the ed. of hisObras, Seville, 1895; and see Salvi López,Un Petrarchista spagnuolo(1896); Ticknor I, 461 (with a verse translation of the first madrigal).DIEGO HURTADO DE MENDOZA. Soldier, diplomat, historian, humanist, poet; one of the most illustrious figures in the history of Spain. His long sojourn in Italy acquainted him with the Italian verse methods, which he adopted, although he constantly recurred to the regular Spanish forms, such as thequintillasand theredondillas. His fame rests secure, despite the unfounded attribution to him of the picaresque novelLazarillo de Tormes. There is an edition of his verse by Knapp (1877); cf. alsoBiblioteca de autores españoles, vol. 32, and see J. D. Fesenmair,Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, ein span. Humanist des 16. Jhs., Munich, 1882.Page 74.—l. 24.de medroso,through fear.l. 25.De desesperado,through despair.CRISTÓBAL DE CASTILLEJO. This writer was abroad for a long period as the secretary of Ferdinand I., king of Bohemia. Although he spent much time in Italy, and occasionally adopted the Italian manner, he usually protested loudly against the Italianizing tendencies in Spanish literature. Cf.Biblioteca de autores españoles, vol. 32.Page 75.—l. 15. This poem is in doublequintillas.l. 26.Anabaptistas: allusion is here made to the fact that this sect does not recognize any but adult baptism. One baptized in unconscious childhood has to be rebaptized to enter this communion.Page 76.—l. 3.Petrarquistas: imitators of the Italian poet Petrarch (1304-74).l. 20.Jorge Manrique: cf.note to p. 42.l. 23.platique(i.e.,pratique),because the old style is no longer practised.359l. 24.Garci-Sánchez: Garci-Sánchez de Badajoz, the author of an allegorical poem entitledEl Infierno del Amor, died in a mad-house at the end of the fifteenth or in the early sixteenth century. He appears here as an enemy of the Italianates.l. 25.¡Quien me otorgase,oh, if some one would only grant me!l. 30.Cartagena: cf.note to p. 57.l. 34.Torres Naharro: one of the most important of the early Spanish dramatists. His plays were published at Naples in 1517. Following the rule of Horace, he was the first to divide the Spanish drama into five acts. Despite the large Italian influence upon him, he is here made an opponent of the Italian movement in Spain.Page 77.—l. 5.Boscán: cf.note to p. 67.l. 6.Garcilaso: cf.note to p. 70. The praise here given is, of course, ironical.l. 22.desmandados,astray.Page 78.—l. 10.Luis de Haro: although Castillejo singles this personage out as a leading Italianate, little is known of him. The few poems ascribed to him in theCancioneroof Nájera (1554) hardly justify the importance here given to him. Cf. Ticknor, I, 461, note.l. 13.el otro: seemingly, Luis de Haro; but Garcilaso also figured in the campaign against the Sultan.—Solimán: Solimán II, Sultan from 1520 to 1566.GREGORIO DE SILVESTRE. A Portuguese, organist of the cathedral at Granada. He imitated Castillejo in abusing the Italianates, yet he later wrote in the foreign manner. Simplicity of expression and considerable finish of form are the chief characteristics of his verse. Cf. Ticknor, I, 465 f.; Garcia Peres,Catálogo de los autores portugueses que escribieron en castellano, Madrid, 1890. His verse is in theBiblioteca de autores españoles, vol. 32.Page 78.—l. 23-24. Cf.p. 77, ll. 5 ff. Castillejo’s praise was rather sarcastic.Page 80.—l. 17.Guarte: i.e.,guárdate.JORGE DE MONTEMAYOR. Also a Portuguese, and originally namedMontemôr. He is famous as the author of the prose pastoral romanceDiana Enamorada. He wrote a good deal of verse in Spanish—satires, elegies, ballads, lyrics, etc.—that may be found in hisCancioneros(Antwerp, 1554, etc.). Cf. G. Schönnherr,Jorge de Montemayor, etc., Halle, 1886.360LUIS DE CAMOENS. The glory of Portuguese literature, author of the Portuguese epicOs Lusiadas. Like so many of his countrymen, he wrote verse in Spanish as well as in his own language. Cf. hisObras, Lisbon, 1860-69; and see Ticknor, III, 77, note, and 58 (with a verse translation of theLetrilla).Page 81.—l. 30.vo, i.e.,voy.Page 82.—l. 26.fora, i.e.,fuera.SANTA TERESA DE JESÚS(Teresa de Cepeda y Ahumada). A Carmelite nun already in 1536, she devoted the rest of her laborious life to founding convents and thoroughly reforming her Order and to the composition of her devotional and mystical works (El Camino de la perfección—El castillo interior, etc.). She is one of the greatest of the Spanish mystics, and is in every way an attractive figure. Cf.Biblioteca de autores españoles, vols. 53 and 55, for her works; and see an account of her life by Mrs. Cunninghame Graham (1894).Page 85.—l. 21. ThisLetrillahas been translated by Longfellow (Riverside ed., 1886, VI, 216).FERNANDO DE HERRERA. An ecclesiastic, and head of the so-called Seville school of lyric poetry in the sixteenth century. Not much is known of his life. Eminently a poet, and as such called theDivineby his countrymen, he wrote with exceeding purity of style and greatly enriched Spanish poetic diction. His masterpiece is the ode:Por la vitoria de Lepanto. The influence of Petrarch is clear in his sonnets. SeeBiblioteca de autores españoles, vol. 32, for his poems; and cf. Ticknor, III, 7 ff. and E. Bourciez in theAnnales de la Faculté des lettres de Bordeaux(1891).Page 86.—l. 1. This sonnet has been Englished by Archdeacon Churton (in his translations from Gongora, etc., London, 1862, vol. I, p. 223). The naval battle of Lepanto (near Corinth) took place on October 7, 1571, between the Turks on one side, and on the other the combined squadrons of Spain, Venice and Pope Pius V, under the command of Don John of Austria, a natural brother of Philip II. The Christians triumphed and Mohammedan inroads into the Occident were checked. Cervantes was crippled in this battle.—Ponto,ocean,sea.l. 14.El joven de Austria, i.e., Don John.l. 15. Cf. theCantigaof Villasandino,p. 24.Page 87.—l. 14.aquella: cf.p. 88, l. 23.361Page 88.—l. 12.efeto, 15afeto: i.e.,efecto,afecto; cf.vitoria.l. 23.Pasitea: one of the three Graces.l. 24. Cf.note to p. 86, l. 1, and see the critical edition of this ode by A. Morel-Fatio, Paris, 1893.l. 25.Trace,Thracian: here theTurk.Page 89.—l. 20.las dos Hesperias, i.e., Italy and Spain.ll. 27-28. Allusions to the campaigns of the Turks in Hungary and Dalmatia, and their seizure of Rhodes (1522).Page 91.—l. 15.Egito: cf.Ægyptus, feminine in Latin.l. 24.dellas, i.e.,de ellas.Page 92.—l. 21.dragón; 28.león: allusions to the arms of the Turk and of Castile and Leon.Page 93.—l. 6.De Tiro, i.e.,of the Turks. Tyre had been in their hands since 1517.FRAY LUIS DE LEÓN. Cleric, poet, humanist, mystic, professor at the University of Salamanca. Accused of a violation of church law in publishing a Spanish translation of theSong of Solomon, he was arrested by order of the tribunal of the Inquisition and spent five years in its dungeons. Then, his innocence being made clear, he was released, rehabilitated in the University, and promoted to high honors in his Order (the Augustinians). There is no good edition of his works, but his poems and his prose treatises in expositive theology may be found in vol. 37 of theBiblioteca de autores españoles. His verse is admirable, and is distinguished by its noble diction, the purity of its style, and the simplicity of its expression, qualities especially noticeable in theVida del Campoand theProfecía del Tajo. It shows generally a strongly marked mystical tendency, but bears also the impress of his humanistic temperament. The influence of Horace is everywhere patent in León’s works. With Herrera and Garcilaso, he occupies the highest place among the lyric poets of the age. See Menéndez y Pelayo,De la poesía mística(Estudios de crítica literaria, Madrid, 1884); J. D. M. Ford,Luis de León, the Spanish Poet, Humanist, and Mystic(Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, vol. XIV, No. 2); andBlanco-García’srecent treatise on León. See also English poetical versions of several of León’s lyrics made by H. Phillips (Philadelphia, 1883).Page 97.—ll. 14-15. An extremely venturesomeenjambement. But the entity ofmentein adverbs is always clear to the Spanish mind.362l. 24. This poem has been rendered into English verse by W. C. Bryant. Cf. Ticknor, II, 88.l. 30.agora, i.e.,ahora.Page 100.—l. 6.el arrebatado, i.e.,the sudden, violent and abnormal movement.ll. 12-13. The Bears are, of course, boreal constellations and regularly above the horizon.l. 26. León here deals with an unhistorical legend of Arabic origin, according to which the Moors were introduced into Spain in 711, through the treachery of an injured father, Count Julian, whose daughter, sometimes calledCava, King Roderick was said to have seduced. The Spanish poet imitates the situation in Horace’s ode,Pastor quum traheret per freta navibus.Page 101.—l. 14.Constantina: a town of the province of Seville.l. 17.Sansueña: the Spanish kingdom of Sansueña figures in the legends dealing with Charlemagne, and has been identified with Saragossa; cf. theDon Quijote, II, ch. xxvi. For an identification with Saxony cf. F. Hanssen,Sobre la poesía épica de los Visigodos, Santiago, 1892.l. 19.dende: equivalent to the moderndesde.Page 102.—l. 12.el hercúleo estrecho,the Strait of Gibraltar.l. 19.el puerto ... sagrado: the port of Tarifa.l. 21.el alta sierra: el was used as the feminine article even before adjectives in earlier Spanish.l. 30.Betis: the Latin riverBætis, the modernGuadalquivir.Page 103.—l. 2.luces, i.e.,días.—haces,ranks.l. 6. Churton (l. c., II, 245) has made a poetical translation of theNoche serena.Page 104.—l. 22.luz: i.e., Mercury.23.estrella: i.e., Venus.SAN JUAN DE LA CRUZ. St. John of the Cross (in the world, Juan de Yepes y Álvarez) was like St. Theresa a Carmelite, and like her also one of the most illustrious of the mystics and an energetic monastic reformer. His prose works of contemplative mysticism gained him the title of theEcstatic Doctor. Of his poems, but few in number, the best is theCanciónprinted here, in which we see illustrated the part played by theSong of Solomonin the development of a highly sensuous element in Spanish mysticism. Cf.Biblioteca de autores españoles, vol. 27, and an ed. of the poems by W. Storck (1854); and see Ticknor, I, 208.363Page 105.—l. 21. David Lewis has made a rhythmical version in English of this beautiful poem.PEDRO MALÓN DE CHAIDE. An Augustinian mystic with ascetic tendencies. The present verses are taken from his metrical paraphrase of theSong of Solomon. Cf.Biblioteca de autores españoles, vol. 27.Page 107.—l. 20.escuro, i.e.,oscuro.JUAN DE TIMONEDA. A Valencian bookseller and one of the earliest playwrights of the sixteenth century, successful especially in hispasos. He attempted the tale in hisPatrañuelo, a collection of some twenty stories, and in theRosa de romances(1573) published a collection of the ballads of other poets, along with lyrics of his own composition. Cf. Ticknor, III, 81 ff.Page 108.—l. 22.vella, i.e.,verla.FRANCISCO DE FIGUEROA. A native of Alcalá de Henares who went to Italy as a soldier and there spent a good part of his life, writing verse in both Spanish and Italian. He was successful in the pastoral, and firmly established blank verse (theverso suelto) in Castilian. His eclogueThyrsiswas the first composition in Spanish wholly in that metrical form. Only a part of his poems are preserved, as at his death he seems to have ordered them to be destroyed. Cf. theBiblioteca de autores españoles, vol. 42; theColección Fernández, vol. 20; Ticknor, III, 5 ff.LUIS BARAHONA DE SOTO. Enjoyed much fame with his contemporaries for hisLágrimas de Angelica, a continuation of the story in the Italian epicOrlando Furioso. Some pleasing lyrics of his are found in theFlores de poetas ilustresof Espinosa (Valladolid, 1604); cf. also vol. II of theLíricos del siglo XVIin theBiblioteca de autores españoles.SONETO: Á CRISTO CRUCIFICADO. This beautiful sonnet has been ascribed without warrant to St. Theresa, St. Ignatius Loyola, St. Francis Xavier and others. It remains anonymous; cf. Foulché-Delbose in theRevue hispanique, II, 120 ff. There is an English poetical version of it, attributed to Dryden (“O God, thou art the object of my love,” etc.); cf. also J. Y. Gibson’s version (The Cid Ballads, etc., London, 1887, II, 144) and the Latin hymn, “Deus ego te amo.” It is printed with the works of St. Theresa in theBiblioteca de autores españoles.364BENITO ARIAS MONTANO. A theologian of note and the friend of Luis de León. Cf. vol. II, p. 502 of theLíricos del siglo XVIin theBiblioteca de autores españoles.ROMANCES. Inromancesor ballads, Spain is the richest of all lands. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries particularly, there appeared many collections (romanceros) of these short lyrico-narrative poems, dealing with subjects drawn from the history—more or less legendary—of Spain and of France, and with subjects purely chivalrous and erotic in nature. The oldest and most typical of the Spanish ballads have been edited by Wolf and Hoffman in theirPrimavera y flor de romances, Berlin, 1856 (reprinted by Menéndez y Pelayo in hisAntología, vols. 8 and 9), and practically the whole of them are to be found in A. Durán’sRomancero General, Madrid, 1849, 1851 (vols. 10 and 16 of theBiblioteca de autores españoles). The great majority of theromancesare in octosyllabic lines bearing the stress on the seventh syllable and having assonance—that is, vowel rhyme only, as distinguished from vowel and consonant rhyme—in the alternate lines. At one time it was believed that theromanceswere of very ancient origin, although written down only at the end of the fifteenth and in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. As a matter of fact, most of them are rather artificial in nature, and in composition belong to the period when they were written. Gaston Paris maintains, however, that a number of them deal with detached episodes from old epic poems, and there seems to be ample evidence to prove his assertion. Cf. G. Paris in theJournal des savants, mai et juin, 1898 (a review of Menéndez-Pidal’sLeyenda de los Infantes de Lara); Milá y FontanalsDe la poesía heroico-popular castellana(in hisObras completas, vol. 7, Barcelona, 1896); Ticknor, I, 95 ff.; F. Wolf,Ueber die Romanzen-poesie der Spanier(in hisStudien, etc., Berlin, 1859, pp. 304 ff.); R. Menéndez-Pidal,La leyenda de los Infantes de Lara, Madrid, 1896; Baist in Gröber’sGrundriss, II, 2, pp. 430 ff. Many of the ballads have been translated into English by J. G. Lockhart and others.

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=bandv;ç=c(beforee,i), andz(beforea,o,u);e=eandy; initialf=fandh;i=i,j,g(beforee,i),y;l=landll;ll=landll;mn=mbr;nn=ñandn;ny=ñ;nb=mb;np=mp;pl(initial) =ll;rr=randrr;ss=s; finalt=d;u=u,b,v;v=b,v,u;x=xandj;y=iandy;z=zandc(beforee,i). Initialhmay be suppressed;h(trihunfo) andy(peyor) may intervene between vowels. For modern Spanish equivalents of the more difficult Old Spanish words see theGlosario.

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, aDebate between Wine and Water. By reason of its subject, M. Morel-Fatio entitled our piece aPoème d’Amour; the present title is the one which it bears in Menéndez y Pelayo’sAntología 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 Provençalpastourelles,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 notildein this and other cases where the modern language has it.

l. 7. The MS. hastryança.

l. 10.cortesía: i.e., the totality of qualities marking a gentleman; cf. the moderncortesanía.

l. 18.tocas: the truncated imperfect subjunctive occurs frequently in Old Spanish texts. Cf.p. 4, l. 11.

Page 4.—l. 7.ovi miedo:haberwas 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-orwere treated as feminine in Old Spanish.

l. 18.olíen, l. 19.teníe. Under certain conditions the imperfect indicative endingsia, etc., were weakened toie, etc. These lines seem to show assonance instead of rhyme.

l. 20.es,sson. The modern distinctions betweenserandestarwere 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 nounseñorwas both masculine and feminine in early Spanish, as its etymon, the adjectivesenior, 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. hasbuenas yentesandpunnientes.

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, theLibro 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 calledcuaderna vía345—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 theCántica 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 theBiblioteca 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 hisLibro de buen amor(published in theBiblioteca de autores castellanos, volume 57, asLibro de los cantares) he is frankly improper and shows in a marked degree the influence of Ovid’s works, of thePamphilus de Amore, a mediæval imitation of Ovid, and of various Old French works. The selections here given are taken from theBibliotecavolume already cited; cf. also the edition of theLibro de buen amorby J. Ducamin (Bibliothèque méridionale, 1esérie, tome VI).

Page 9.—l. 22. There is a metrical translation of this poem by Longfellow, first published inThe North American Review, April, 1833, and reprinted in the Riverside edition of Longfellow’s works, 1886, vol. VI, pp. 414 ff. Longfellow imitates thecuaderna víaarrangement 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 translationin anticipation.

l. 6.tomar, cf.note p. 8, l. 1.

l. 8. In this song the author abandons thecuaderna víafor the octosyllabic verse. Occasional imperfections of rhyme are noticeable here.

l. 13.Habémoslo a:haber aequivalent tohaber de; thelois used indefinitely.

l. 28.De quien, equivalent topor 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 theConde 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 theCancionero General, theCancioneiroof 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’sGrundriss 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 didacticRimado de Palacio(published in theBiblioteca 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 incuaderna vía. In the second part, which opens with our firstcantar, we find plaints, prayers and songs to the Virgin interspersed among347the didactic and satiric passages. The last are still incuaderna 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 inredondillas. 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 withhaberis found agreeing with its object.

Page 15.—l. 13.Cantar á la Virgen. This octosyllabic song begins with stanza 830 of theRimado de Palacio.

l. 17. With the epithets here applied to Mary compare those addressed to the Spouse in theSong 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 theBiblioteca de autores españoles, vol. 57) is probably a version of an earlier French poem. Its date has been variously estimated. Baist (Gröber’sGrundriss 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 theBiblioteca, vol. 57) is of the class ofDebates between the Body and the Soul, common in the Middle Ages. Cf. theVisión de Filiberto, published by Toledo in theZeitschrift f. romanische Philologie, II, 40, and for a Middle-English348version see Mätzner,Altenglische Sprachproben, I, 90. See also C. Fritzsche,Die lateinischen Visionen des Mittelalters, inRomanische Forschungen, II, 279 ff., III, 337 ff.

çiençia gaya,art of poetry; a term of Provençal origin.

Page 21.—l. 9.prima, the canonical hourprime.

l. 11.hera: theera españolabegan thirty-eight years before the Christian era.

l. 16.el, found in early Spanish before feminine nouns not beginning with accenteda. 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 calledcossanteby the author. Portuguese-Galician influence is clear in the Admiral’s poems.

ALFONSO ÁLVAREZ DE VILLASANDINO. One of the most importanttrovadoresat 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 theCancioneroof 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, ofmoderation,dignityandgracein 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 theCancioneroof 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 presentdecir, 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 doubledshere and inrysso, 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 theCancioneroof 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 theCancionerosa 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 theCancioneroof Baena (ed. 1860, II, p. 254), but the metre seems to require the conjunctionéafterprados.

l. 30.ryso:risais 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 as350the author of the allegorical poemEl Laberinto(also known as theTrecientas, from the original number of its stanzas). Imitating the scheme of Dante’sDivina 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 theCoronaciónand theCoplas de los siete pecados mortales. Note the dactylic (—́ ‿ ‿) rhythm of the presentversos 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 theCoplas de Mingo Revulgoand of theCelestina. A meritorious poem of Cota’s is theDiálogo entre el Amor y un Viejo(published by Menéndez y Pelayo in hisAntología de poetas líricos castellanos, vol. IV, p. 1). A burlesque ascribed to him may be seen in theRevue 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 theCancioneroof Baena (ed. 1860, p. c).

Page 32.—l. 13.Mingo Rebulgo;Mingo=Domingo, and according to early glossesRebulgois here an intensitive ofvulgo=cosa pública.

l. 21.¿Non ... rejo?A line of doubtful sense. Menéndez y Pelayo would translatete llotrasbyte alegras. Butllotrarseseems to meanvestirse; 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?”

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., thesonetosand theobras 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), theComedieta de Ponza, in theCoronacion de Mossen Jordiand theInfierno de enamorados. Didactic or doctrinal in bent are theDiálogo de Bias contra Fortuna, theProverbios, and theDoctrinal 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 theobras de amores, that is to say, theserranillas(mountain-girl songs) orvaqueiras(cowherd songs, a Galician word), such as the famous one onp. 35, thevillancicos(a popular form with anestribilloor 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 proseCarta al Condestable de Portugalhe 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 onp. 164and of Núñez de Arce onp. 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 theVita 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 infinitiverto thelof 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—theCancionero 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 theCancionero 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 LANDOwas 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 thejeu partiand thejoex partitzof 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, seenote 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 Italiandolce stil nuovopoets, 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. Tworomancesof his, contained in theCancionero 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 hisCancioneroby 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., meresitesformerly 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 theCancionero Generalof 1511. The love-poems and humorous pieces given there and in otherCancionerosare of no decided merit, except perhaps an occasional poem, such as that printed here onp. 42. His real title to enduring fame is based upon the exquisitecoplas, 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 verse354by 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 requireyervas secretas.

l. 20. Cf. St. John i. 10.

Page 45.—l. 1.fué: in modern Spanishfueraorseríawould 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.Otrosis in the same construction asunosof 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 topara 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 ofSantiago de la Espadawas 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 theCancionero Generalof 1511, and has been translated into English verse by Ticknor, I, 398. The theme is the same as that of St. Theresa in theGlosaonp. 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 theCancionero General, and theCancionerosof 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 theCancioneroof Baena (ed. 1860, II, 347), and see also Ticknor, I, 355.

Page 58.—l. 11.Penetre: in assonance only withContemple.

MOSSÉN JUAN TALLANTE. The title of this personage may indicate an Aragonese origin for him. His devotional poems are found in theCancionero 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 theCancionero Generalto a Comendador Escribá (or Escrivá). They appealed strongly to the great writers of thesiglo de oro, for Calderón cited the first stanza (with some variation) in his dramasEl mayor monstruo los celosandManos blancas no ofenden, Cervantes repeated it inDon 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 individualCancioneroexists in manuscript; only the poems found356in theCancionero Generalhave been published. Cf.Romanische Forschungenof Vollmöller, X, 13.

Page 60.—l. 5.Que aquel; equivalent toQue á aquel.

ANÓNIMO. A wide-spread conceit, given Spanish form in this poem. Cf. C. M. de Vasconcellos,Antología Española(Leipzig, 1875), I, 53.

JUAN DEL ENCINA. A member of the household of the Duke of Alba, whence he passed over into Italy. There he became master of the papal choir; he then took orders and went to Jerusalem. He is supposed to have died at Salamanca. Of his lyrics, which belong to his earlier period, the more important have been published by Menéndez y Pelayo,Antología, IV, 135 ff. His eclogues were, perhaps, the first Spanish dramas actually staged. Cf. F. Wolf,Studien, etc., pp. 270 ff.

Page 64.—l. 14.mancilla: here used in the older sense ofpity,compassion.

PEDRO MANUEL DE URREA. This noble published his lyrics in 1513 in a volume dedicated to his mother. They are partly secular and partly religious in nature, and show some Italian influence. Urrea also cultivates popular Spanish forms. HisCancionerohas been reprinted in theBiblioteca de escritores aragoneses. Secc. lit. II(1876). Cf. the verse translation of thisromancein Ticknor, I, 371.

GIL VICENTE. A Portuguese disciple of Encina’s, who wrote dramas in both Portuguese and Spanish. The present song occurs in his play,El auto de la Sibila Casandra. See the edition of his works, Hamburg, 1834, and cf. Ticknor, I, 259, where there is a metrical translation of the song.

JUAN BOSCÁN ALMOGAVER. A Catalonian who wrote in Castilian with great success. He served in the Spanish army in Italy, and was later a tutor to the Duke of Alba. His earlier verses are in the national manner. Prompted, it is said, by the Venetian ambassador Navagiero, he became an Italianate, and, following the357lead of Imperial and Santillana, was much more influential than they in establishing Italian verse methods in Castilian. He has made a large use of the hendecasyllable, theverso sueltoor blank verse (imitated from the Italianversi sciolti), theottava rimaand the sonnet, and has frequently imitated Dante, Petrarch, and thecinque centopoets of Italy. Among his more important poetical works are theHero y Leandroand theOctava rima, this latter being an allegorical poem from which the verses onp. 68 ff.are an excerpt. The influence of the Italian poet Bembo is clear in theOctava rima. In his translation of Castiglione’sCortegiano, Boscán showed a mastery of Castilian prose. Cf. W. T. Knapp,Las obras de Juan Boscán, Madrid, 1875, and G. Baist,Spanische Literatur(Gröber’sGrundriss, II, 2, 449 ff.).

Page 68.—ll. 6-8. A reminiscence of Dante,Inferno, Canto V, the words of Francesca: “Nessun maggior dolore, | Che ricordarsi del tempo felice | Nella miseria.”

l. 11.Por do:wherefore.

Page 69.—l. 17. Cf. the translation of this stanza in Ticknor, I, 445.

l. 30.quexaros, i.e.,quejaros.

GARCILASO DE LA VEGA. This soldier-poet, a native of Toledo, took part in the battle of Pavia, distinguished himself in several succeeding campaigns, and was killed in an assault when but thirty-three years of age. A friend of Boscán, he represents the same Italianizing tendencies in Spanish literature. His verses, along with those of Boscán, were first published by the latter’s widow in 1543. The bulk of his poetry is small—some earlyvillancicos, a few eclogues and elegies, an epistle, severalcanciones, and between thirty and forty sonnets—but it suffices to show him to be a greater poet than Boscán. But very little of his work is in the old Castilian manner; the Italians are his masters in the important part of his production, although the eclogues show also a Vergilian influence. Cf.Biblioteca de autores españoles, vols. 32 and 42, and see Baist in Gröber’sGrundriss, II, 2, p. 449; Ticknor, I, 446 ff.

Page 71.—l. 34.de consuno,at the same time.

Page 72.—l. 12.Tomando: iffeis the object oftomando, then it is by a poetical license thatpresupuestois left invariable. Iffeis the subject oftomando, the participle agrees with the idea inlo que no entiendo.

l. 17.nascí, i.e.,nací.

FERNANDO DE ACUÑA. A member of the court of Charles V. In imitation of Garcilaso de la Vega, he adopted the Italian measures, and was particularly successful with the sonnet. Cf. hisVarias poesías, Madrid, 1803-04, and see Ticknor I, 458 ff.

GUTIERRE DE CETINA. Another follower of Garcilaso. Like the latter he was a soldier, and distinguished himself in Italy. About 1550 he appears to have wandered as far as Mexico. Cetina cultivated the sonnet with great skill. His madrigals are famous. Cf. the ed. of hisObras, Seville, 1895; and see Salvi López,Un Petrarchista spagnuolo(1896); Ticknor I, 461 (with a verse translation of the first madrigal).

DIEGO HURTADO DE MENDOZA. Soldier, diplomat, historian, humanist, poet; one of the most illustrious figures in the history of Spain. His long sojourn in Italy acquainted him with the Italian verse methods, which he adopted, although he constantly recurred to the regular Spanish forms, such as thequintillasand theredondillas. His fame rests secure, despite the unfounded attribution to him of the picaresque novelLazarillo de Tormes. There is an edition of his verse by Knapp (1877); cf. alsoBiblioteca de autores españoles, vol. 32, and see J. D. Fesenmair,Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, ein span. Humanist des 16. Jhs., Munich, 1882.

Page 74.—l. 24.de medroso,through fear.

l. 25.De desesperado,through despair.

CRISTÓBAL DE CASTILLEJO. This writer was abroad for a long period as the secretary of Ferdinand I., king of Bohemia. Although he spent much time in Italy, and occasionally adopted the Italian manner, he usually protested loudly against the Italianizing tendencies in Spanish literature. Cf.Biblioteca de autores españoles, vol. 32.

Page 75.—l. 15. This poem is in doublequintillas.

l. 26.Anabaptistas: allusion is here made to the fact that this sect does not recognize any but adult baptism. One baptized in unconscious childhood has to be rebaptized to enter this communion.

Page 76.—l. 3.Petrarquistas: imitators of the Italian poet Petrarch (1304-74).

l. 20.Jorge Manrique: cf.note to p. 42.

l. 23.platique(i.e.,pratique),because the old style is no longer practised.

l. 24.Garci-Sánchez: Garci-Sánchez de Badajoz, the author of an allegorical poem entitledEl Infierno del Amor, died in a mad-house at the end of the fifteenth or in the early sixteenth century. He appears here as an enemy of the Italianates.

l. 25.¡Quien me otorgase,oh, if some one would only grant me!

l. 30.Cartagena: cf.note to p. 57.

l. 34.Torres Naharro: one of the most important of the early Spanish dramatists. His plays were published at Naples in 1517. Following the rule of Horace, he was the first to divide the Spanish drama into five acts. Despite the large Italian influence upon him, he is here made an opponent of the Italian movement in Spain.

Page 77.—l. 5.Boscán: cf.note to p. 67.

l. 6.Garcilaso: cf.note to p. 70. The praise here given is, of course, ironical.

l. 22.desmandados,astray.

Page 78.—l. 10.Luis de Haro: although Castillejo singles this personage out as a leading Italianate, little is known of him. The few poems ascribed to him in theCancioneroof Nájera (1554) hardly justify the importance here given to him. Cf. Ticknor, I, 461, note.

l. 13.el otro: seemingly, Luis de Haro; but Garcilaso also figured in the campaign against the Sultan.—Solimán: Solimán II, Sultan from 1520 to 1566.

GREGORIO DE SILVESTRE. A Portuguese, organist of the cathedral at Granada. He imitated Castillejo in abusing the Italianates, yet he later wrote in the foreign manner. Simplicity of expression and considerable finish of form are the chief characteristics of his verse. Cf. Ticknor, I, 465 f.; Garcia Peres,Catálogo de los autores portugueses que escribieron en castellano, Madrid, 1890. His verse is in theBiblioteca de autores españoles, vol. 32.

Page 78.—l. 23-24. Cf.p. 77, ll. 5 ff. Castillejo’s praise was rather sarcastic.

Page 80.—l. 17.Guarte: i.e.,guárdate.

JORGE DE MONTEMAYOR. Also a Portuguese, and originally namedMontemôr. He is famous as the author of the prose pastoral romanceDiana Enamorada. He wrote a good deal of verse in Spanish—satires, elegies, ballads, lyrics, etc.—that may be found in hisCancioneros(Antwerp, 1554, etc.). Cf. G. Schönnherr,Jorge de Montemayor, etc., Halle, 1886.

LUIS DE CAMOENS. The glory of Portuguese literature, author of the Portuguese epicOs Lusiadas. Like so many of his countrymen, he wrote verse in Spanish as well as in his own language. Cf. hisObras, Lisbon, 1860-69; and see Ticknor, III, 77, note, and 58 (with a verse translation of theLetrilla).

Page 81.—l. 30.vo, i.e.,voy.

Page 82.—l. 26.fora, i.e.,fuera.

SANTA TERESA DE JESÚS(Teresa de Cepeda y Ahumada). A Carmelite nun already in 1536, she devoted the rest of her laborious life to founding convents and thoroughly reforming her Order and to the composition of her devotional and mystical works (El Camino de la perfección—El castillo interior, etc.). She is one of the greatest of the Spanish mystics, and is in every way an attractive figure. Cf.Biblioteca de autores españoles, vols. 53 and 55, for her works; and see an account of her life by Mrs. Cunninghame Graham (1894).

Page 85.—l. 21. ThisLetrillahas been translated by Longfellow (Riverside ed., 1886, VI, 216).

FERNANDO DE HERRERA. An ecclesiastic, and head of the so-called Seville school of lyric poetry in the sixteenth century. Not much is known of his life. Eminently a poet, and as such called theDivineby his countrymen, he wrote with exceeding purity of style and greatly enriched Spanish poetic diction. His masterpiece is the ode:Por la vitoria de Lepanto. The influence of Petrarch is clear in his sonnets. SeeBiblioteca de autores españoles, vol. 32, for his poems; and cf. Ticknor, III, 7 ff. and E. Bourciez in theAnnales de la Faculté des lettres de Bordeaux(1891).

Page 86.—l. 1. This sonnet has been Englished by Archdeacon Churton (in his translations from Gongora, etc., London, 1862, vol. I, p. 223). The naval battle of Lepanto (near Corinth) took place on October 7, 1571, between the Turks on one side, and on the other the combined squadrons of Spain, Venice and Pope Pius V, under the command of Don John of Austria, a natural brother of Philip II. The Christians triumphed and Mohammedan inroads into the Occident were checked. Cervantes was crippled in this battle.—Ponto,ocean,sea.

l. 14.El joven de Austria, i.e., Don John.

l. 15. Cf. theCantigaof Villasandino,p. 24.

Page 87.—l. 14.aquella: cf.p. 88, l. 23.

Page 88.—l. 12.efeto, 15afeto: i.e.,efecto,afecto; cf.vitoria.

l. 23.Pasitea: one of the three Graces.

l. 24. Cf.note to p. 86, l. 1, and see the critical edition of this ode by A. Morel-Fatio, Paris, 1893.

l. 25.Trace,Thracian: here theTurk.

Page 89.—l. 20.las dos Hesperias, i.e., Italy and Spain.

ll. 27-28. Allusions to the campaigns of the Turks in Hungary and Dalmatia, and their seizure of Rhodes (1522).

Page 91.—l. 15.Egito: cf.Ægyptus, feminine in Latin.

l. 24.dellas, i.e.,de ellas.

Page 92.—l. 21.dragón; 28.león: allusions to the arms of the Turk and of Castile and Leon.

Page 93.—l. 6.De Tiro, i.e.,of the Turks. Tyre had been in their hands since 1517.

FRAY LUIS DE LEÓN. Cleric, poet, humanist, mystic, professor at the University of Salamanca. Accused of a violation of church law in publishing a Spanish translation of theSong of Solomon, he was arrested by order of the tribunal of the Inquisition and spent five years in its dungeons. Then, his innocence being made clear, he was released, rehabilitated in the University, and promoted to high honors in his Order (the Augustinians). There is no good edition of his works, but his poems and his prose treatises in expositive theology may be found in vol. 37 of theBiblioteca de autores españoles. His verse is admirable, and is distinguished by its noble diction, the purity of its style, and the simplicity of its expression, qualities especially noticeable in theVida del Campoand theProfecía del Tajo. It shows generally a strongly marked mystical tendency, but bears also the impress of his humanistic temperament. The influence of Horace is everywhere patent in León’s works. With Herrera and Garcilaso, he occupies the highest place among the lyric poets of the age. See Menéndez y Pelayo,De la poesía mística(Estudios de crítica literaria, Madrid, 1884); J. D. M. Ford,Luis de León, the Spanish Poet, Humanist, and Mystic(Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, vol. XIV, No. 2); andBlanco-García’srecent treatise on León. See also English poetical versions of several of León’s lyrics made by H. Phillips (Philadelphia, 1883).

Page 97.—ll. 14-15. An extremely venturesomeenjambement. But the entity ofmentein adverbs is always clear to the Spanish mind.

l. 24. This poem has been rendered into English verse by W. C. Bryant. Cf. Ticknor, II, 88.

l. 30.agora, i.e.,ahora.

Page 100.—l. 6.el arrebatado, i.e.,the sudden, violent and abnormal movement.

ll. 12-13. The Bears are, of course, boreal constellations and regularly above the horizon.

l. 26. León here deals with an unhistorical legend of Arabic origin, according to which the Moors were introduced into Spain in 711, through the treachery of an injured father, Count Julian, whose daughter, sometimes calledCava, King Roderick was said to have seduced. The Spanish poet imitates the situation in Horace’s ode,Pastor quum traheret per freta navibus.

Page 101.—l. 14.Constantina: a town of the province of Seville.

l. 17.Sansueña: the Spanish kingdom of Sansueña figures in the legends dealing with Charlemagne, and has been identified with Saragossa; cf. theDon Quijote, II, ch. xxvi. For an identification with Saxony cf. F. Hanssen,Sobre la poesía épica de los Visigodos, Santiago, 1892.

l. 19.dende: equivalent to the moderndesde.

Page 102.—l. 12.el hercúleo estrecho,the Strait of Gibraltar.

l. 19.el puerto ... sagrado: the port of Tarifa.

l. 21.el alta sierra: el was used as the feminine article even before adjectives in earlier Spanish.

l. 30.Betis: the Latin riverBætis, the modernGuadalquivir.

Page 103.—l. 2.luces, i.e.,días.—haces,ranks.

l. 6. Churton (l. c., II, 245) has made a poetical translation of theNoche serena.

Page 104.—l. 22.luz: i.e., Mercury.

23.estrella: i.e., Venus.

SAN JUAN DE LA CRUZ. St. John of the Cross (in the world, Juan de Yepes y Álvarez) was like St. Theresa a Carmelite, and like her also one of the most illustrious of the mystics and an energetic monastic reformer. His prose works of contemplative mysticism gained him the title of theEcstatic Doctor. Of his poems, but few in number, the best is theCanciónprinted here, in which we see illustrated the part played by theSong of Solomonin the development of a highly sensuous element in Spanish mysticism. Cf.Biblioteca de autores españoles, vol. 27, and an ed. of the poems by W. Storck (1854); and see Ticknor, I, 208.

Page 105.—l. 21. David Lewis has made a rhythmical version in English of this beautiful poem.

PEDRO MALÓN DE CHAIDE. An Augustinian mystic with ascetic tendencies. The present verses are taken from his metrical paraphrase of theSong of Solomon. Cf.Biblioteca de autores españoles, vol. 27.

Page 107.—l. 20.escuro, i.e.,oscuro.

JUAN DE TIMONEDA. A Valencian bookseller and one of the earliest playwrights of the sixteenth century, successful especially in hispasos. He attempted the tale in hisPatrañuelo, a collection of some twenty stories, and in theRosa de romances(1573) published a collection of the ballads of other poets, along with lyrics of his own composition. Cf. Ticknor, III, 81 ff.

Page 108.—l. 22.vella, i.e.,verla.

FRANCISCO DE FIGUEROA. A native of Alcalá de Henares who went to Italy as a soldier and there spent a good part of his life, writing verse in both Spanish and Italian. He was successful in the pastoral, and firmly established blank verse (theverso suelto) in Castilian. His eclogueThyrsiswas the first composition in Spanish wholly in that metrical form. Only a part of his poems are preserved, as at his death he seems to have ordered them to be destroyed. Cf. theBiblioteca de autores españoles, vol. 42; theColección Fernández, vol. 20; Ticknor, III, 5 ff.

LUIS BARAHONA DE SOTO. Enjoyed much fame with his contemporaries for hisLágrimas de Angelica, a continuation of the story in the Italian epicOrlando Furioso. Some pleasing lyrics of his are found in theFlores de poetas ilustresof Espinosa (Valladolid, 1604); cf. also vol. II of theLíricos del siglo XVIin theBiblioteca de autores españoles.

SONETO: Á CRISTO CRUCIFICADO. This beautiful sonnet has been ascribed without warrant to St. Theresa, St. Ignatius Loyola, St. Francis Xavier and others. It remains anonymous; cf. Foulché-Delbose in theRevue hispanique, II, 120 ff. There is an English poetical version of it, attributed to Dryden (“O God, thou art the object of my love,” etc.); cf. also J. Y. Gibson’s version (The Cid Ballads, etc., London, 1887, II, 144) and the Latin hymn, “Deus ego te amo.” It is printed with the works of St. Theresa in theBiblioteca de autores españoles.

BENITO ARIAS MONTANO. A theologian of note and the friend of Luis de León. Cf. vol. II, p. 502 of theLíricos del siglo XVIin theBiblioteca de autores españoles.

ROMANCES. Inromancesor ballads, Spain is the richest of all lands. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries particularly, there appeared many collections (romanceros) of these short lyrico-narrative poems, dealing with subjects drawn from the history—more or less legendary—of Spain and of France, and with subjects purely chivalrous and erotic in nature. The oldest and most typical of the Spanish ballads have been edited by Wolf and Hoffman in theirPrimavera y flor de romances, Berlin, 1856 (reprinted by Menéndez y Pelayo in hisAntología, vols. 8 and 9), and practically the whole of them are to be found in A. Durán’sRomancero General, Madrid, 1849, 1851 (vols. 10 and 16 of theBiblioteca de autores españoles). The great majority of theromancesare in octosyllabic lines bearing the stress on the seventh syllable and having assonance—that is, vowel rhyme only, as distinguished from vowel and consonant rhyme—in the alternate lines. At one time it was believed that theromanceswere of very ancient origin, although written down only at the end of the fifteenth and in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. As a matter of fact, most of them are rather artificial in nature, and in composition belong to the period when they were written. Gaston Paris maintains, however, that a number of them deal with detached episodes from old epic poems, and there seems to be ample evidence to prove his assertion. Cf. G. Paris in theJournal des savants, mai et juin, 1898 (a review of Menéndez-Pidal’sLeyenda de los Infantes de Lara); Milá y FontanalsDe la poesía heroico-popular castellana(in hisObras completas, vol. 7, Barcelona, 1896); Ticknor, I, 95 ff.; F. Wolf,Ueber die Romanzen-poesie der Spanier(in hisStudien, etc., Berlin, 1859, pp. 304 ff.); R. Menéndez-Pidal,La leyenda de los Infantes de Lara, Madrid, 1896; Baist in Gröber’sGrundriss, II, 2, pp. 430 ff. Many of the ballads have been translated into English by J. G. Lockhart and others.

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