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stream of Castilian literature than such attempts ever have upon the literary output of a country. Some of the popular coplas, or couplets, however, seem to be direct translations from the Arabic, which is not surprising when we remember the considerable number of half-breeds to be found in the Peninsula until the middle of the seventeenth century. There can be no [45]doubt, too, that Arabic was the spoken language of thousands of Christians in Southern Spain. But that it had a determined opponent in the native Spanish is becoming more and more clear--an opponent which it found as merciless as the Moor found the Spaniard.24 Perhaps the best measure of the decline of Arabic as a spoken language in Spain is the fact that the authors of many romances declare them to be mere translations from the Arabic--usually the writings of Moorish magicians or astrologers. These pretensions are easily refuted by means of internal evidence. But regarding the question broadly and sanely, Spanish literature could no more remain unaffected by Arab influence than could Spanish music, architecture, or handicrafts. All such influences, however, were undoubt- edly late, and, as regards the romances, were much more 'spiritual' than 'material.' Christian Spain had held off the Saracen for eight hundred years, and when at last she consented to drink out of the Saracen cup she filled it with her own wine. But the strange liquor which had brimmed it before left behind it the mysterious odours and scents of the Orient, faint, yet unmistakable. [Contents] The Type of Spanish Romance The type of Spanish romance at its best is that in which the spirit of wonder is mingled with the spirit of chivalry. Old Spain, with her glorious ideas of honour, [46]her finely wrought sense of chivalry, and her birthright of imagination, provided almost a natural crucible for the admixture of the elements of romance. Every circumstance of climate and environment assisted and fostered the illusions with which Spanish story teemed, and above all there was a more practical interest in the life chivalric in Spain than, perhaps, in any other country in Europe. The Spaniard carried the insignia of chivalry more properly than Frenchman or Englishman. It was his natural apparel, and he brought to its wearing a dignity, a gravity, and a consciousness of fitness unsurpassed. If he degenerated into a Quixote it was because of the whole-hearted seriousness with which he had embraced the knightly life. He was certainly the first to laugh when he found that his manners, like his mail, had become obsolete. But even the sound of that laughter is knightly, and the book which aroused it has surely won at least as many hearts for romanticism as ever it disillusioned. The history of Spanish conquest is a chronicle of champions, of warriors almost superhuman in ambition and endurance, mighty carvers of kingdoms, great remodellers of the world's chart, who, backed by a handful of lances, and whether in Valencia, Mexico, Italy, or Araucan, surpassed the fabulous deeds of Amadis or Palmerin. In a later day the iron land of Castile was to send forth iron men who were to carry her banners across an immensity of ocean to the uttermost parts of the earth. What inspired them to live and die in harness surrounded by dangers more formidable than the enchantments of malevolent sorcerers or than ever confronted knights-errant in the quest of mysterious castles? What heartened them in an [47]existence of continuous strife, privation, and menace? Can we doubt that the hero-tales of their native land magically moved and inspired them--that when going into battle the exploits of the heroes of romance rang in their ears like a fanfare from the trumpets of heralds at a tournament? And as we gat us to the fight Our armour and our hearts seemed light Thinking on battle's cheer, Of fierce Orlando's high prowess, Of Felixmarte's knightliness And the death of Olivier.25 12 [48] 1 The moro latinado, or Spanish-speaking Moor, is a prominent figure in later Spanish story. 2 Bishop Odoor's will (747) shows the break-up of Hispanic Latin, and Charles the Bald in an edict of 844 alludes to the usitato vocabulo of the Spaniards--their "customary speech." On the Gothic period see Pere Jules Tailham, in the fourth volume of Cahier and Martin's Nouveaux Melanges d'Archeologie, d'Histoire, et de Litterature sur le Moyen Age (1877). 3 This jargon owed much more to the lingua rustica than to Gothic, which has left its mark more deeply upon the pronunciation and syntax of Spanish than on its vocabulary. 4 Catalan differed slightly in a dialectic sense from Provencal. It was divided into pla Catala and Lemose, the common speech and the literary tongue. 5 "On the whole," says Professor Saintsbury, "the ease, accomplishment, and, within certain strict limits, variety of the form, are more remarkable than any intensity or volume of passion or of thought" (Flourishing of Romance and Rise of Allegory, pp. 368-369). He further remarks that the Provencal rule "is a rule of 'minor poetry,' accomplished, scholarly, agreeable, but rarely rising out of minority." 6D. 1214. 7 It was entitled El Arte de Trobar, and is badly abridged in Mayan's Origenes de la Lengua Espanola (Madrid, 1737). 8 On Provencal influence upon Castilian literature see Manuel Mila y Fontanal, Trovadores en Espana (Barcelona, 1887); and E. Baret, Espagne et Provence (1857), on a lesser scale. 9 Still they found many Spanish-speaking people in that area; and it was the Romance speech of these which finally prevailed in Spain. 10 Madrid, 1839. 11 In the Cancionero de Romances (Antwerp, 1555). 12 See the article on Alfonso XI in N. Antonio, Bibliotheca Hispana Vetus. 13 English translation by James York. 14 Reigned 1407-54. 15 Gaston Paris, La Litterature Francaise au Moyen Age (Paris, 1888), and Leon Gautier, Les Epopees Francaise (Paris, 1878-92), are the leading authorities upon the chansons de gestes. Accounts of these in English can be found in Ludlow's Popular Epics of the Middle Ages (1865) and in my Dictionary of Medieval Romance (1913). 16 See W. Wentworth Webster, in the Boletin of the Academia de Historia for 1883. 17 See Manuel Mila y Fontanal, Poesia heroico-popular Castellana (Barcelona, 1874). 18 The term, first employed by Count William of Poitiers, the earliest troubadour, at first implied any work written in the vernacular Romance languages. Later in Spain it was used as an equivalent for cantar, and finally indicated a lyrico-narrative poem in octosyllabic assonants. 19 In German it was known from 1583, and in English from 1619. Southey's translation (London, 1803) is (happily) an abridgment, and has been reprinted in the "Library of Old Authors" (1872). I provide full bibliographical details when dealing with the romance more fully. 20Omniana, t. ii, p. 219 (London, 1812). 21Don Quixote, Part I, chap. vi. 22 English translation by Southey, 4 vols. (London, 1807). 23 In the chapter entitled "Moorish Romances of Spain" the reader will find specimens of the romantic fictions of that people, from which he can judge for himself of their affinity or otherwise with the Spanish romances. 24 See Dozy, History of the Moors in Spain, Eng. trans., and Recherches sur l'Histoire politique et litteraire de l'Espagne (1881); F. J. Simonet, Introduction to his Glosario de Voces iberias y latinas usadas entre los Muzarabes (1888); Renan, Averroes et Averroisme (1866). Gayangos' Mohammedan Dynasties in Spain (London, 1843) is somewhat obsolete, as is Conde's Dominacion de los Arabes. 25 "The Raid," an old Spanish poem. [Contents] Chapter II: The "Cantares de Gesta" and the "Poema del Cid" When meat and drink is great plentye Then lords and ladyes still will be, And sit and solace lythe. Then it is time for mee to speake Of kern knights and kempes great, Such carping for to kythe. "Guy and Colbrand," a romance The French origin of the cantares de gesta has already been alluded to. Their very name, indeed, bespeaks a Gallic source. But in justice to the national genius of Spain we trust that it has been made abundantly clear that the cantares speedily cast off the north- 13 ern mode and robed themselves in Castilian garb. Some lands possess an individuality so powerful, a capacity for absorption and transmutation so exceptional, that all things, both physical and spiritual, which invade their borders become transfigured and speedily metamorphosed to suit their new environment. Of this magic of transformation Spain, with Egypt and America, seems to hold the especial secret. But transfigure the chansons of France as she might, the mould whence they came is apparent to those who are cognisant of their type and machinery. Nor could the character of their composers and professors be substantially altered, so that we must not be surprised to find in Spain the trouveres and jongleurs of France as trovadores and juglares. The trovador was the poet, the author, the juglar merely the singer or declaimer, although no very hard-and-fast line was drawn betwixt them. Some juglares of more than ordinary distinction were also the authors of the cantares they sang, while an unsuccessful [49]trovador might be forced to chant the verses of others. Instrumentalists or accompanists were known as juglares de penola in contradistinction to the reciters or singers, juglares de boca. [Contents] The Singers of Old Spain With the juglar, indeed, was left the final form of the cantar, for he would shape and shear it, add to or suppress, as his instinct told him the taste of his audience demanded. Not infrequently he would try to pour the wine of a cantar into the bottle of a popular air, and if it overflowed and was spilt, so much the worse for the cantar. Frequently he was accompanied not only by an instrumentalist, but by a remendador, or mimic, who illustrated his tale in dumb show. These sons of the gay science were notoriously
