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some regular form, which was afterwards highly improved by the Garcilasos, Herréras, and others. He admires the Cid above all the champions of antiquity, as the subject of an heroic composition; and he laments only that this Achilles had no Homer to record his achievements; but he admits that the composition is neither destitute of poetical design and invention, nor of thought and expression.

The author has with judgment omitted the early part of the life of the Cid, prior to his banishment by Alphonso VI.; but relates his wars with the Moors, with the Count of Barcelona, his succeeding victories, the taking of Valencia, his reconciliation with his Sovereign, the insult offered to his daughters, the reparation and vengeance he sought and obtained, and his alliances with the royal houses of Arragon and Navarre, where the work concludes-slightly touching, however, upon the death of the hero.

It is seen that there are sufficient materials in such a story, and they are worked up in some parts with considerable dexterity. We would give a single specimen from this venerable relic, by which the proficient in Spanish literature will be gratified, but as to the choice, we have some difficulty: Quintana has selected the parting of the Cid and Ximena, when he was about to pay obedience to the order for his banishment, and which appears to great disadvantage in Mr. Southey's Chronicle, from the exclusion of the most beautiful passages. We shall, however, avail ourselves of the appendix to the work of the latter, for the sake of the spirited translation, which we believe is from the pen of Mr. Frere, and of the following extract that describes the sally of the Cid's champions from the Castle of Alcocer, within which his troops had been confined by a numerous army of Moors.

"Embrazan los escudos delant los corazones:
Abaxan las lanzas apuestas de los pendones:
Enclinaron las caras desuso de los arzones:
Ybanlos ferir de fuertes corazones:

A grandes voces lama el que en buen ora nasco;
Feridlos caballeros por amor de caridad;
'Yo so Ruy Diaz el Cid Campeador de Bibar.'
Todos fieren en el haz do esta Pero Bermuez.
Trescientas lanzas son, todas tienen pendones:
Sennos Moros mataron, todos de sennos colpes:
A la tornada que facen otros tantos son.
Veriedes tantas lanzas premer è alzar:
Tanta adarga a foradar è pasar;

Tanta loriga falsa desmanchar;

Tantos pendones blancos salir bermeios en sangre ;
Tantos buenos cavallos sin sos duenos andar.

Los Moros laman Mafomat: los Christianos Sanctiague. Cayen en un poco de logar Moros muertos mill è trescientos ya. "Their shields before their breasts, forth at once they go,

Their lances in the rest, levell'd fair and low;
Their banners and their crests waving in a row,
Their heads all stooping down toward the saddle bow.
The Cid was in the midst, his shout was heard afar,
'I am Rui Diaz, the Champion of Bivar;

'Strike amongst them, gentlemen, for sweet mercies sake!'
There where Bermuez fought amidst the foe they brake,
Three hundred banner'd knights, it was a gallant show:
Three hundred Moors they kill'd, a man with every blow;
When they wheel'd and turn'd, as many more lay slain,
You might see them raise their lances and level them again.
There you might see the breastplates, how they were cleft in twain,
And many a Moorish shield lie shatter'd on the plain.

The
pennons that were white mark'd with a crimson stain,
The horses running wild whose riders had been slain.
The Christians call upon St. James, the Moors upon
Mahound,
There were thirteen hundred of them slain on a little spot of

ground."

If the author supply no extracts from the original poem, he introduces some of the ballads founded upon it, which afforded the immediate materials of Guillen de Castro's production. Sarmiento was of opinion that the popular ballads of the Twelve Peers, among which is the Cid, were composed soon after the time of the heroes they celebrate, and were what the Copleros, Trouveurs, and Joculars sang at the public entertainments. These, he assumes, were in the early dialect of the date of their composition; although at a subsequent time, when committed to writing, the language was accommodated to its character at the end of the fifteenth century. Lord Holland considers, that "El Romancero del Cid," which contains those of which G. de Castro made such free use, was published in the sixteenth century. The entire collection of the Ballads of the Cid comprehended 102, all of them in octosyllabic verse, and under the title of "La Historia del muy valeroso Cavallero del Cid, Ruy Diez de Bivar en Romances, en lenguage antiguo, recopilado por Juan de Escobar: Sevilla, 1632." This, in Mr. Southey's opinion, " is the only separate collection, and by no means a complete one."

The ballads inserted, or referred to by his lordship, are twelve in number, and they narrate the means taken by the Cid's father to ascertain the courage of his son; the reflection of the latter on the parental injunction to chastise the Count Lozano for an irreparable affront; the death of the offender by the sword of the Cid; the interview with the father when the son brings the head of his enemy; the tumult at Burgos; and the appeal of Ximena to the justice of the King for the punishment of the murderer of her parent; the renewal of that appeal six months after the deed; and finally, the extraordinary application of this lady for the royal sanction to her marriage with the delinquent, and the solemnity and splendour of the nuptials.

Poetical translations are given of all these ballads; and they are written with so much taste and spirit as well as accuracy, that those who are unacquainted with the language, will feel a great portion of the beauties of the original, and, in some instances, what is incomplete is supplied, and what is dark is illumined.

The noble author now proceeds to the drama itself, which is introduced by the following observations.

"Such were the sources from which Guillen de Castro drew the story and sentiments of his play. The reader will have perceived in the tenth ballad (De Rodrigo de Bivar, &c.) that the proposal of marriage originates with Ximena herself. She is not, however, prompted by any romantic or ungovernable love to so indelicate a proceeding. Her motives are of the most worldly and sordid na

ture.

Que soy cierta su hazienda

Ha de ir en mejoria.

His fortune will become, I see,
The first in all this land.

Nothing could be less adapted to heroic tragedy than such sentiments and conduct. Guillen de Castro has, with great judgment, altered that part of the story. Ximena falls in love with the Cid in the first scene of his play, and the Cid is described as passionately enamoured of her before he undertakes to execute the dreadful injunctions of his father. Many other instances of Guillen: de Castro's judgment might be adduced." (p. 58-59, vol. ii.)

The principal characters are King Fernando, holding his court at Burgos; the Queen, Don Sancho the Prince, Diego Lainez the Cid's father, Rodrigo the Cid, Count Lozano a powerful and intemperate nobleman, and Ximera Gomez his daughter. The first scene exhibits the decrepid Diego

Lainez on his knees, thanking the King for knighting his son Rodrigo. The haughty temper of Prince Sancho is displayed in this scene, and affords a contrast to the calm and dignified conduct of the Cid. This ceremony being concluded, the King detains his four counsellors, Diego Lainez, Arrias Gonzalo, Peranzules and Lozano, to consult with them on an important subject. His Majesty then informs them, that Bermudes, the tutor of his son is dead, and that it has become necessary therefore to appoint a successor. He next assigns reasons from the respective employments of these his counsellors for rejecting three of them, and nominating Diego Lainez to the duty, Arrias Gonzalo and Peranzules readily assent to this appointment, but the indignation of Lozano is strongly excited by the preference given to an aged man, whom he represents as wholly incompetent to the office, and he thus expresses his disapprobation,

"Con. Si, merece y mas ahora
Que à ser contigo ha llegado
Preferido a mi valor

Tan á costa de mi agravio.
Habiendo yo pretendido
El servir en este cargo
Al principe mi señor

Que el cielo guarde mil años,
Debieras mirar, buen Rey,
Lo que siento y lo que callo
Por estar en tu presencia
Si es que puedo sufrir tanto.
¿Si el viejo Diego Lainez
Con el peso de los años
Caduca ya, cómo puede
Siendo caduco ser sabio ?
Y quando al Principe enseñe
Lo
que entre exercicios varios,
Debe hacer un caballero
En las plazas y en los campos,
¿Podrá para darle exemplo
Como yo mil veces hago
Hacer una lanza hastillas

Desalentando un caballo?

Si yo

deLoz. He deserves indeed!

What does he not deserve who lives to see

His claims preferred to mine,-preferred O King, by thee?

For I to serve thy royal son desired,
And as in hopes I to that post aspired;
If I can stoop my sufferings to conceal,
If, awed by thee, I stifle what I feel;

Still thou must know my wrongs, and well may guess
Those thoughts thy presence only can suppress
Diego! in whose tottering frame appears
The hand of time, the fatal weight of years;
Shall be our Prince instruct in arms, in fight,
In all the prowess of a perfect knight?
When he the youth would by example teach
To scour the plain, or to assail the breach
The way to toil shall old Diego lead,
Urge the fleet courser panting in his speed?
Or break the lance to shivers in his sight?
The daily sports that form my chief delight❞—

;

(p. 66-68, vol. ii.)

The King here interposes, and old Lainez justifies his

own election.

"Dieg. Nunca, Conde,

Anduvisteis tan Lozano.

Que estoy caduco confieso,

Que el tiempo al fin puede tanto :
Mas caducando, durmiendo,

Feneciendo, delirando,
Puedo, puedo enseñar yo
Lo que muchos ignoraron.
Que si es verdad que se muere
Qual se vive, agonizando
Para vivir daré exemplos
Y valor para imitarlos.
Si ya me faltan las fuerzas
Para con pies y con brazos
Hacer de lanzas hastillas
Y desalentar caballos,
De mis hazanas escritas
Daré al Principe un traslado
Y aprenderá en lo que hice,
Sino aprende en lo que hago,
Y vera el mundo y el Rey
Que ninguno en lo criado
Merece

"Diego. The haughty Count's thy name, they say;
And well that title hast thou prov'd to-day;

Yes, I am weak, I not deny the crime,

Such is the doom of age, and such the power of time!

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