[170] Argote de Molina (Discurso sobre la Poesía Castellana, in Conde Lucanor, 1575, f. 92) will have it that the ballad verse of Spain is quite the same with the eight-syllable verse in Greek, Latin, Italian, and French; “but,” he adds, “it is properly native to Spain, in whose language it is found earlier than in any other modern tongue, and in Spanish alone it has all the grace, gentleness, and spirit that are more peculiar to the Spanish genius than to any other.” The only example he cites in proof of this position is the Odes of Ronsard,—“the most excellent Ronsard,” as he calls him,—then at the height of his euphuistical reputation in France; but Ronsard’s odes are miserably unlike the freedom and spirit of the Spanish ballads. (See Odes de Ronsard, Paris, 1573, 18mo, Tom. II. pp. 62, 139.) The nearest approach that I recollect to the mere measure of the ancient Spanish ballad, where there was no thought of imitating it, is in a few of the old French Fabliaux, in Chaucer’s “House of Fame,” and in some passages of Sir Walter Scott’s poetry. Jacob Grimm, in his “Silva de Romances Viejos,” (Vienna, 1815, 18mo,) taken chiefly from the collection of 1555, has printed the ballads he gives us as if their lines were originally of fourteen or sixteen syllables; so that one of his lines embraces two of those in the old Romanceros. His reason was, that their epic nature and character required such long verses, which are in fact substantially the same with those in the old “Poem of the Cid.” But his theory, which was not generally adopted, is sufficiently answered by V. A. Huber, in his excellent tract, “De Primitivâ Cantilenarum Popularium Epicarum (vulgo, Romances) apud Hispanos Formâ,” (Berolini, 1844, 4to,) and in his preface to his edition of the “Chrónica del Cid,” 1844.

[171] The only suggestion I have noticed affecting this statement is to be found in the Repertorio Americano, (Lóndres, 1827, Tom. II. pp. 21, etc.,) where the writer, who, I believe, is Don Andres Bello, endeavours to trace the asonante to the “Vita Mathildis,” a Latin poem of the twelfth century, reprinted by Muratori, (Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, Mediolani, 1725, fol., Tom. V. pp. 335, etc.,) and to a manuscript Anglo-Norman poem, of the same century, on the fabulous journey of Charlemagne to Jerusalem. But the Latin poem is, I believe, singular in this attempt, and was, no doubt, wholly unknown in Spain; and the Anglo-Norman poem, which has since been published by Michel, (London, 1836, 12mo,) with curious notes, turns out to be rhymed, though not carefully or regularly. Raynouard, in the Journal des Savants, (February, 1833, p. 70,) made the same mistake with the writer in the Repertorio; probably in consequence of following him. The imperfect rhyme of the ancient Gaelic seems to have been different from the Spanish asonante, and, at any rate, can have had nothing to do with it. Logan’s Scottish Gael, London, 1831, 8vo, Vol. II. p. 241.

[172] Cervantes, in his “Amante Liberal,” calls them consonancias or consonantes dificultosas. No doubt, their greater difficulty caused them to be less used than the asonantes. Juan de la Enzina, in his little treatise on Castilian Verse, Cap. 7, written before 1500, explains these two forms of rhyme, and says that the old romances “no van verdaderos consonantes.” Curious remarks on the asonantes are to be found in Renjifo, “Arte Poetica Española,” (Salamanca, 1592, 4to, Cap. 34,) and the additions to it in the edition of 1727 (4to, p. 418); to which may well be joined the philosophical suggestions of Martinez de la Rosa, Obras, Paris, 1827, 12mo, Tom. I. pp. 202-204.

[173] A great poetic license was introduced before long into the use of the asonante, as there had been, in antiquity, into the use of the Greek and Latin measures, until the sphere of the asonante became, as Clemencin well says, extremely wide. Thus, u and o were held to be asonante, as in Venus and Minos; i and e, as in Paris and males; a diphthong with a vowel, as gracia and alma, cuitas and burlas; and other similar varieties, which, in the times of Lope de Vega and Góngora, made the permitted combinations all but indefinite, and the composition of asonante verses indefinitely easy. Don Quixote, ed. Clemencin, Tom. III. pp. 271, 272, note.

[174] Poesía Española, Madrid, 1775, 4to, sec. 422-430.

[175] It would be easy to give many specimens of ballads made from the old chronicles, but for the present purpose I will take only a few lines from the “Crónica General,” (Parte III. f. 77. a, ed. 1604,) where Velasquez, persuading his nephews, the Infantes de Lara, to go against the Moors, despite of certain ill auguries, says, “Sobrinos estos agueros que oystes mucho son buenos; ca nos dan a entender que ganaremos muy gran algo de lo ageno, e de lo nuestro non perderemos; e fizol muy mal Don Nuño Salido en non venir combusco, e mande Dios que se arrepienta,” etc. Now, in Sepúlveda, (Romances, Anvers, 1551, 18mo, f. 11), in the ballad beginning “Llegados son los Infantes,” we have these lines:—

[176] Duran, Romances Caballerescos, Madrid, 1832, 12mo, Prólogo, Tom. I. pp. xvi., xvii., with xxxv., note (14).

[177] The peculiarities of a metrical form so entirely national can, I suppose, be well understood only by an example; and I will, therefore, give here, in the original Spanish, a few lines from a spirited and well-known ballad of Góngora, which I select, because they have been translated into English asonantes, by a writer in the Retrospective Review, whose excellent version follows, and may serve still further to explain and illustrate the measure:—

Obras, Madrid, 1654, 4to, f. 83.

This rhyme is perfectly perceptible to any ear well accustomed to Spanish poetry, and it must be admitted, I think, that, when, as in the ballad cited, it embraces two of the concluding vowels of the line, and is continued through the whole poem, the effect, even upon a foreigner, is that of a graceful ornament, which satisfies without fatiguing. In English, however, where our vowels have such various powers, and where the consonants preponderate, the case is quite different. This is plain in the following translation of the preceding lines, made with spirit and truth, but failing to produce the effect of the Spanish. Indeed, the rhyme can hardly be said to be perceptible except to the eye, though the measure and its cadences are nicely managed.

Retrospective Review, Vol. IV. p. 35.

Another specimen of English asonantes is to be found in Bowring’s “Ancient Poetry of Spain” (London, 1824, 12mo, p. 107); but the result is substantially the same, and always must be, from the difference between the two languages.

[178] Speaking of the ballad verses, he says, (Prólogo á las Rimas Humanas, Obras Sueltas, Tom. IV., Madrid, 1776, 4to, p. 176,) “I regard them as capable, not only of expressing and setting forth any idea whatever with easy sweetness, but carrying through any grave action in a versified poem.” His prediction was fulfilled in his own time by the “Fernando” of Vera y Figueroa, a long epic published in 1632, and in ours by the very attractive narrative poem of Don Ángel de Saavedra, Duke de Rivas, entitled “El Moro Exposito,” in two volumes, 1834. The example of Lope de Vega, in the latter part of the sixteenth and beginning of the seventeenth centuries, no doubt did much to give currency to the asonantes, which, from that time, have been more used than they were earlier.

[179] See the barbarous Latin poem printed by Sandoval, at the end of his “Historia de los Reyes de Castilla,” etc. (Pamplona, 1615, fol., f. 193). It is on the taking of Almeria in 1147, and seems to have been written by an eyewitness.

[180] The authority for this is sufficient, though the fact itself of a man being named from the sort of poetry he composed is a singular one. It is found in Diego Ortiz de Zuñiga, “Anales Ecclesiasticos y Seglares de Sevilla,” (Sevilla, 1677, fol., pp. 14, 90, 815, etc.). He took it, he says, from the original documents of the repartimientos, which he describes minutely as having been used by Argote de Molina, (Preface and p. 815,) and from documents in the archives of the Cathedral. The repartimiento, or distribution of lands and other spoils in a city, from which, as Mariana tells us, a hundred thousand Moors emigrated or were expelled, was a serious matter, and the documents in relation to it seem to have been ample and exact. (Zuñiga, Preface, and pp. 31, 62, 66, etc.) The meaning of the word Romance in this place is a more doubtful matter. But if any kind of popular poetry is meant by it, what was it likely to be, at so early a period, but ballad poetry? The verses, however, which Ortiz de Zuñiga, on the authority of Argote de Molina, attributes (p. 815) to Domingo Abad de los Romances, are not his; they are by the Arcipreste de Hita. See Sanchez, Tom. IV. p. 166.

[181] Stanzas 426, 427, 483-495, ed. Paris, 1844, 8vo.

[182] Partida II. Tít. XXI. Leyes 20, 21. “Neither let the singers (juglares) rehearse before them other songs (cantares) than those of military gestes, or those that relate feats of arms.” The juglares—a word that comes from the Latin jocularis—were originally strolling ballad-singers, like the jongleurs, but afterwards sunk to be jesters and jugglers. See Clemencin’s curious note to Don Quixote, Parte II. c. 31.

[183] Crónica General, Valladolid, 1604, Parte III. ff. 30, 33, 45.

[184] El Conde Lucanor, 1575. Discurso de la Poesía Castellana por Argote de Molina, f. 93. a.

[185] The end of the Second Part of the General Chronicle, and much of the third, relating to the great heroes of the early Castilian and Leonese history, seem to me to have been indebted to older poetical materials.

[186] Discurso, Conde Lucanor, ed. 1575, ff. 92. a, 93. b. The poetry contained in the Cancioneros Generales, from 1511 to 1573, and bearing the name of Don John Manuel, is, as we have already explained, the work of Don John Manuel of Portugal, who died in 1524.

[187] The Marquis of Santillana, in his well-known letter, (Sanchez, Tom. I.,) speaks of the Romances e cantares, but very slightly.

[188] Cancion, Canzone, Chansos, in the Romance language, signified originally any kind of poetry, because all poetry, or almost all, was then sung. (Giovanni Galvani, Poesia dei Trovatori, Modena, 1829, 8vo, p. 29.) In this way, Cancionero in Spanish was long understood to mean simply a collection of poetry,—sometimes all by one author, sometimes by many.

[189] The whole ballad, with a different reading of the passage here translated, is in the Cancionero de Romances, Saragossa, 1550, 12mo, Parte II. f. 188, beginning “Media noche era por hilo.” Often, however, as the adventures of the Count Claros are alluded to in the old Spanish poetry, there is no trace of them in the old chronicles. The fragment in the text begins thus, in the Cancionero General (1535, f. 106. a):—

The beginning of this ballad in the complete copy from the Saragossa Romancero shows that it was composed before clocks were known.

[190] The forced alliteration of the first lines, and the phraseology of the whole, indicate the rudeness of the very early Castilian:—

Cancionero General, 1535, f. 111. a.

[191] These two ballads are in the Cancionero of 1535, ff. 107 and 108; both evidently very old. The use of carta in the last for an unwritten message is one proof of this. I give the originals of both for their beauty. And first:—

The other is as follows:—

[192] These ballads are in the edition of 1535, on ff. 109, 111, and 113.

[193] One of the most spirited of these later ballads in the edition of 1573, begins thus (f. 373):—

It was probably written by some homesick follower of Philip II.

[194] Salvá (Catalogue, London, 1826, 8vo, No. 60) reckons nine Cancioneros Generales, the principal of which will be noticed hereafter.

[195] Those on Gayferos begin, “Estabase la Condessa,” “Vamonos, dixo mi tio,” and “Assentado esta Gayferos.” The two long ones on the Marquis of Mantua and the Conde d’ Irlos begin, “De Mantua salió el Marqués,” and “Estabase el Conde d’ Irlos.”

[196] Compare the story of the angels in disguise, who made the miraculous cross for Alfonso, A. D. 794, as told in the ballad, “Reynando el Rey Alfonso,” in the Romancero of 1550, with the same story as told in the “Crónica General” (1604, Parte III. f. 29);—and compare the ballad, “Apretada està Valencia,” (Romancero, 1550,) with the “Crónica del Cid,” 1593, c. 183, p. 154.

[197] It begins, “Retrayida està la Infanta,” (Romancero, 1550,) and is one of the most tender and beautiful ballads in any language. There are translations of it by Bowring (p. 51) and by Lockhart (Spanish Ballads, London, 1823, 4to, p. 202). It has been at least four times brought into a dramatic form;—viz., by Lope de Vega, in his “Fuerza Lastimosa”; by Guillen de Castro; by Mira de Mescua; and by José J. Milanes, a poet of Havana, whose works were printed there in 1846 (3 vols. 8vo);—the three last giving their dramas simply the name of the ballad,—“Conde Alarcos.” The best of them all is, I think, that of Mira de Mescua, which is found in Vol. V. of the “Comedias Escogidas” (1653, 4to); but that of Milanes contains passages of very passionate poetry.

[198] “Mandó el Rey prender Virgilios” (Romancero, 1550). It is among the very old ballads, and is full of the loyalty of its time. Virgil, it is well known, was treated, in the Middle Ages, sometimes as a knight, and sometimes as a wizard.

[199] Compare the ballads beginning, “Las Huestes de Don Rodrigo,” and “Despues que el Rey Don Rodrigo,” with the “Crónica del Rey Don Rodrigo y la Destruycion de España” (Alcalá, 1587, fol., Capp. 238, 254). There is a stirring translation of the first by Lockhart, in his “Ancient Spanish Ballads,” (London, 1823, 4to, p. 5,)—a work of genius beyond any of the sort known to me in any language.

[200] Ortiz de Zuñiga (Anales de Sevilla, Appendix, p. 831) gives this ballad, and says it had been printed two hundred years. If this be true, it is, no doubt, the oldest printed ballad in the language. But Ortiz is uncritical in such matters, like nearly all of his countrymen. The story of Garci Perez de Vargas is in the “Crónica General,” Parte IV., in the “Crónica de Fernando III.,” c. 48, etc., and in Mariana, Historia, Lib. XIII. c. 7.

[201] See Appendix (B), on the Romanceros.

[202] Sismondi, Hist. des Français, Paris, 1821, 8vo, Tom. II. pp. 257-260.

[203] Montesinos and Durandarte figure so largely in Don Quixote’s visit to the cave of Montesinos, that all relating to them is to be found in the notes of Pellicer and Clemencin to Parte II. cap. 23, of the history of the mad knight.

[204] These ballads begin, “Estabase el Conde d’ Irlos,” which is the longest I know of; “Assentado esta Gayferos,” which is one of the best, and cited more than once by Cervantes; “Media noche era por hilo,” where the counting of time by the dripping of water is a proof of antiquity in the ballad itself; “A caça va el Emperador,” also cited repeatedly by Cervantes; and “O Belerma, O Belerma,” translated by M. G. Lewis; to which may be added, “Durandarte, Durandarte,” found in the Antwerp Romancero, and in the old Cancioneros Generales.

[205] Memorias para la Poesía Española, Sect. 528.

[206] The story of Bernardo is in the “Crónica General,” Parte III., beginning at f. 30, in the edition of 1604. But it must be almost entirely fabulous.

[207]

Romancero General, 1602, f. 46.

But it was printed as early as 1593.

[208] This is evidently among the older ballads. The earliest printed copy of it that I know is to be found in the “Flor de Romances,” Novena Parte, (Madrid, 1597, 18mo, f. 45,) and the passage I have translated is very striking in the original:—

It is given a little differently by Duran.

[209] The ballad beginning “En Corte del casto Alfonso,” in the ballad-book of 1555, is taken from the “Crónica General,” (Parte III. ff. 32, 33, ed. 1604,) as the following passage, speaking of Bernardo’s first knowledge that his father was the Count of Saldaña, will show:—

The Chronicle reads thus: “E el [Bernardo] quandol supo, que su padre era preso, pesol mucho de coraçon, e bolbiosele la sangre en el cuerpo, e fuesse para su posada, faziendo el mayor duelo del mundo; e vistióse paños de duelo, e fuesse para el Rey Don Alfonso; e el Rey, quando lo vido, dixol: ‘Bernaldo, cobdiciades la muerte mia?’” It is plain enough, in this case, that the Chronicle is the original of the ballad; but it is very difficult, if not impossible, from the nature of the case, to show that any particular ballad was used in the composition of the Chronicle, because, we have undoubtedly none of the ballads in the form in which they existed when the Chronicle was compiled in the middle of the thirteenth century, and therefore a correspondence of phraseology like that just cited is not to be expected. Yet it would not be surprising, if some of these ballads on Bernardo, found in the Sixth Part of the “Flor de Romances,” (Toledo, 1594, 18mo,) which Pedro Flores tells us he collected far and wide from tradition, were known in the time of Alfonso the Wise, and were among the Cantares de Gesta to which he alludes. I would instance particularly the three beginning, “Contandole estaba un dia,” “Antesque barbas tuviesse,” and “Mal mis servicios pagaste.” The language of those ballads is, no doubt, chiefly that of the age of Charles V. and Philip II., but the thoughts and feelings are evidently much older.

[210] Among the ballads taken from the “Crónica General” is, I think, the one in the ballad-book of 1555, beginning “Preso esta Fernan Gonzalez,” though the Chronicle says (Parte III. f. 62, ed. 1604) that it was a Norman count who bribed the castellan, and the ballad says it was a Lombard. Another, which, like the two last, is very spirited, is found in the “Flor de Romances,” Séptima Parte, (Alcalá, 1597, 18mo, f. 65,) beginning “El Conde Fernan Gonzalez,” and contains an account of one of his victories over Almanzor not told elsewhere, and therefore the more curious.

[211] The story of the Infantes de Lara is in the “Crónica General,” Parte III., and in the edition of 1604 begins at f. 74. I possess, also, a striking volume, containing forty plates, on their history, by Otto Vaenius, a scholar and artist, who died in 1634. It is entitled “Historia Septem Infantium de Lara” (Antverpiae, 1612, fol.); the same, no doubt, an imperfect copy of which Southey praises in his notes to the “Chronicle of the Cid” (p. 401). Sepúlveda (1551-84) has a good many ballads on the subject; the one I have partly translated in the text beginning,—

The corresponding passage of the Chronicle is at f. 78, ed. 1604.

[212] In the barbarous rhymed Latin poem, printed with great care by Sandoval, (Reyes de Castilla, Pamplona, 1615, f. 189, etc.,) and apparently written, as we have noticed, by some one who witnessed the siege of Almeria in 1147, we have the following lines:—

These poems must, by the phrase Mio Cid, have been in Spanish; and, if so, could hardly have been any thing but ballads.

[213] Nic. Antonio (Bib. Nova, Tom. I. p. 684) gives 1612 as the date of the oldest Romancero del Cid. The oldest I possess is of Pamplona (1706, 18mo); but the Madrid edition, (1818, 18mo,) the Frankfort, (1827, 12mo,) and the collection in Duran, (Caballerescos, Madrid, 1832, 12mo, Tom. II. pp. 43-191,) are more complete. The most complete of all is that by Keller, (Stuttgard, 1840, 12mo,) and contains 154 ballads. But a few could be added even to this one.

[214] The ballads beginning, “Guarte, guarte, Rey Don Sancho,” and “De Zamora sale Dolfos,” are indebted to the “Crónica del Cid,” 1593, c. 61, 62. Others, especially those in Sepúlveda’s collection, show marks of other parts of the same chronicle, or of the “Crónica General,” Parte IV. But the whole amount of such indebtedness in the ballads of the Cid is small.

[215] The earliest place in which I have seen this ballad—evidently very old in its matériel—is “Flor de Romances,” Novena Parte, 1597, f. 133.

The pun on the name of Count Lozano (Haughty or Proud) is of course not translated.

[216] This is a very old, as well as a very spirited, ballad. It occurs first in print in 1555; but “Durandarte, Durandarte,” found as early as 1511, is an obvious imitation of it, so that it was probably old and famous at that time. In the oldest copy now known it reads thus, but was afterwards changed. I omit the last lines, which seem to be an addition.

This was one of the most popular of the old ballads. It is often alluded to by the writers of the best age of Spanish literature; for example, by Cervantes, in “Persiles y Sigismunda,” (Lib. III. c. 21,) and was used by Guillen de Castro in his play on the Cid.

[217] “En lo que hubo Cid, no hay duda, ni menos Bernardo del Carpio; pero de que hicieron las hazañas que dicen, creo que hay muy grande.” (Parte I. c. 49.) This, indeed, is the good sense of the matter,—a point in which Cervantes rarely fails,—and it forms a strong contrast to the extravagant faith of those who, on the one side, consider the ballads good historical documents, as Müller and Herder are disposed to do, and the sturdy incredulity of Masdeu, on the other, who denies that there ever was a Cid.

[218] See the fine ballad beginning “Si el cavallo vos han muerto,”—which first appears in the “Flor de Romances,” Octava Parte (Alcalá, 1597, f. 129). It is boldly translated by Lockhart.

[219] I refer to the ballad in the “Romancero del Cid” beginning “Llego Alvar Fañez a Burgos,” with the letter following it,—“El vasallo desleale.” This trait in the Cid’s character is noticed by Diego Ximenez Ayllon, in his poem on that hero, 1579, where, having spoken of his being treated by the king with harshness,—“Tratado de su Rey con aspereza,”—the poet adds,—

[220] On one of the occasions when Bernardo had been most foully and falsely treated by the king, he says,—

And on another similar occasion, another ballad, he says to the king,—

[221] In the humorous ballad, “Tanta Zayda y Adalifa,” (first printed, Flor de Romances, Quinta Parte, Burgos, 1594, 18mo, f. 158,) we have the following:—

Góngora, too, attacked them in an amusing ballad,—“A mis Señores poetas,”—and they were defended in another, beginning “Porque, Señores poetas.”

[222] “Ocho á ocho, diez á diez,” and “Sale la estrella de Venus,” two of the ballads here referred to, are in the Romancero of 1593. Of the last there is a good translation in an excellent article on Spanish Poetry in the Edinburgh Review, Vol. XXXIX. p. 419.

[223] Among the fine ballads on Gazul are, “Por la plaza de San Juan,” and “Estando toda la corte.”

[224] For example, “Que es de mi contento,” “Plega á Dios que si yo creo,” “Aquella morena,” “Madre, un cavallero,” “Mal ayan mis ojos,” “Niña, que vives,” etc.

[225] The oldest copy of this ballad or letra that I have seen is in the “Flor de Romances,” Sexta Parte, (1594, f. 27,) collected by Pedro Flores, from popular traditions, and of which a less perfect copy is given, by an oversight, in the Ninth Part of the same collection, 1597, f. 116. I have not translated the verses at the end, because they seem to be a poor gloss by a later hand and in a different measure. The ballad itself is as follows:—

Sexta Parte de Flor de Romances, Toledo, 1594, 18mo, f. 27.