must have been very gratifying to the former subjects of "The Baby King." It must have counteracted the bigotry of Confessors and Mollahs, and tended to inspire both nations with sentiments of kindness and mutual esteem. Bernard of Carpio, above all the rest, was the common property and pride of both peoples. Of his all-romantic life, the most romantic incidents belonged equally to both. It was with Moors that he allied himself when he rose up to demand vengeance from King Alphonso for the murder of his father. It was with Moorish brethren in arms that he marched to fight against the Frankish army for the independence of the Spanish soil. It was in front of a half Leonese, half Moorish host, that Bernard couched his lance, victorious alike over valor and magic:· : When Rowland brave and Olivier, And every Paladin and Peer, On Roncesvalles died. A few Ballads, unquestionably of Moorish origin, and apparently rather of the romantic than of the historical class, are given in a section by themselves. The originals are valuable, as monuments of the manners and customs of a most singular race. Composed originally by a Moor or a Spaniard, — it is often very difficult to determine by which of the two, they were sung in the villages of Andalusia in either language, but to the same tunes, and listened to with equal pleasure by man, woman, and child, - Mussulman and Christian. In these strains, whatever other merits or demerits they may possess, we are, at least, presented with a lively picture of the life of the Arabian Spaniard. We see him as he was in reality, "like steel among weapons, like wax among women," . Fuerte qual azero entre armas, Y qual cera entre las damas. There came, indeed, a time when the fondness of the Spaniards for their Moorish Ballads was made matter of reproach; - but this was not till long after the period when Spanish bravery had won back the last fragments of the Peninsula from Moorish hands. It was thus that a Spanish poet of the These sarcasms were not without their answer; for says another poem in the Romancero General: Si es Español Don Rodrigo, Español fue el fuerte Andalla; Y sepa el Señor Alcayde Que tambien lo es Guadalara. INTRODUCTION. But the best argument follows: No es culpa si de los Moros Nuestras celebras hazañas. xxi The greater part of the Moorish Ballads refer to the period immediately preceding the downfall of the throne of Granada, - the amours of that splendid court, - the bull-feasts and other spectacles in which its lords and ladies delighted no less than those of the Christian courts of Spain, — the bloody feuds of the two great families of the Zegris and the Abencerrages, which contributed so largely to the ruin of the Moorish cause, - and the incidents of that last war itself, in which the power of the Mussulman was entirely overthrown by the arms of Ferdinand and Isabella. To some readers it may perhaps occur, that the part ascribed to Moorish females in these Ballads is not always exactly in the Oriental taste; but the pictures still extant on the walls of the Alhambra contain abundant proofs how unfair it would be to judge, from the manners of any Mussulman nation of our day, of those of the refined and elegant Spanish Moors. The specimens of which the third and largest section consists are taken from amongst the vast multitude of miscellaneous and romantic Ballads in the old Cancioneros. The subjects of a number of these are derived from the fabulous Chronicle of Turpin; and the Knights of Charlemagne's Round Table appear in all their gigantic lineaments. But the greater part are formed precisely of the same sort of materials which supplied our own ancient ballad makers.* *The reader is referred, for much valuable information concerning the Spanish minstrelsy, to an article on these translations which appeared in the "Edinburgh Review," No. 146; - and which is now known to have been written by Mr. Ford, the learned author of the "Handbook for Spain." 1853. EDINBURGH, 1823. |
