DUKE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Digitized by the Internet Archive . in 2017 with funding from Duke University Libraries https://archive.org/details/ancientspanishba01lock_0 ' ■■■ r. 1 k. - . . ■ ,v ^hi LIBRARY OF FOREIGN POETRY. Uni/orm volumes, \(>mo. Cloth. Gilt ioJ>, beveled edges. I. Herz’s King Rene’s Daughter. Translated from the Danish by 'J' heo. Maktin Price, ^1.25. II. Tegner’s Frithiof's Saga. Translated from the Swedish by Rev. W. L. Blackley. Edited by Bavakd I'aylok. Price, $1.50. III. Lessing’s Nathan the Wise. 'IVanslated from the German by Miss Eli.en Frothingham. Price, ^1.50. IV. Selections from the Kalevala — The National Epic of Finland. Translated by Prof. John A. Porter. Price, $1,50. V. Heine’s Book of Songs. Translated from the German by Chas. G. Lelanu. Price, $1.50. VI. Goethe’s Poems and Ballads. Translated from the German by Aytoun and Martin. Price, $1.50. VII. Ancient Spanish Ballads. Historical and Romantic. Translated by J. G. Lockhart. Price, $1.25. HENRY HOLT & CO., PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK. ANCIENT SPANISH BALLADS HISTORICAL AND R03IANTIG TRANSLATED BY J. G. LOCKHART WITH A BIOG RAPHIGAL NOTICE NEW EDITION, REVISED NEW YORK HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 1877 SUO^f kmRQ_ Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1860, by TICKNUU AJSi> i?JELDS, in the Clerk s Oftice of the District Court of the District of Mossaciiusetts. John F. Trow & Son, Printers, 205-213 East i2Th St,, New York. BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE. John Gibson Lockhart was a younger son of a Scotch clergyman, and was born in 1794 in the parish of Cambusnethan When he was two years old his father removed to Glasgow, and in this city he passed the remaining years of his childhood. At an early age he entered the University of Glasgow, where he at once distinguished himself by his proficiency as a scholar, and by his rich promise of future eminence. In 1809, upon the presentation of the Senatus of this venerable institution, he was entered of Baliol College, Oxford. Here he fully sustained his reputation for excellent scholarehip ; and in 1813 he took the highest honors awarded to young men of his standing. Before the completion of his collegiate course he visited the Continent, and spent some time in Germany in studying the language and literature of that country. Upon his return to England he re- sumed his connection with Baliol College, and was graduated in 1817 with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. After leaving Oxford he was admitted to the Scotch bar ; but he soon relinquished the practice of the law for the more con- genial pursuit of polite literature. Upon the commencement of Blackwood’s Magazine, he became one of its ablest and most frequent contributors ; and it is known that he wrote a con- siderable part of the Noctes Arabrosianse. It was from the tone 62C8S IV BIOGRAPHICAI, NOTICE. and temper of his contributions to this journal that the famous quarrel arose which resulted in the death of John Scott, a friend of Charles Lamb, and at that time editor of the London Mag- azine. The pages of Blackwood’s Magazine were from the first disfigured by gross personalities, and by sweeping abuse of every prominent person who differed with its writers upon po- litical and literary questions. To some of these articles Scott replied with considerable asperity through the pages of his own journal. Lockhart considered himself aggrieved by the tuiTi which the discussion took, and challenged his antagonist.. But in the corresjiondence relative to the propo.^ed meeting, new elements were mtroduced, which changed it into a duel between Scott and a .lawyer named Christie, Lockhart’s second. The duel was fought by moonlight at Chalk Farm, famous as the scene of the bloodless encounter between Moore and Jeffrey, and Scott was mortally wounded. His opponent and the seconds were tried for wilful murder, and were acquitted. The whole transaction, however, must be regarded as a heavy stain upon Lockhart’s character, since he was both the aggressor and the challenging party. In 1819 he published anonymously Peter’s Letters to his Kinsfolk, a series of sketches of persons of note in Scotland, written with much spirit and ability, but marked by a strong party tone. It is said that the publication of this work led to Lockhart’s intimacy with Sir Walter Scott, whose eldest daugh- ter he married in the following year. A son by this marriage, John Hugh Lockhart, was the Hugh Little-John, Esq. to whom Sir Walter dedicated the charming Tales of a Grandfather. Mrs. Lockhart died in the spring of 1837, a few years after the death of her father, and several of Lockhart’s children died at an early age. His married life extended over about seventeen years, and was only clouded by these frequent bereavements. In his Life of Scott, he has given a pleasing picture of the happy MOCJRAPHICAI. NOTICE. V years passed in the society of Sir Walter, and in his own famil;^ circle at Chiefswood, near Abbotsford, where he resided until his removal to London. After his marriage Lockhart devoted himself exclusively to literary pursuits ; and in 1821 he published Valerius, the ear- liest and best of his novels. The scene of this story is laid in the times of the Empei’or Trajan, and its interest principally turns upon the persecutions of the Christians in that age. But it contains some brilliant sketches of Roman life and manners, and is one of the eaidiest in a class of novels which have since become quite numerous in our language. He next published, in rapid succession, three other novels, Adam Blair, Reginald Dalton, and Matthew Wald. Each of these works was strongly marked by his intellectual peculiarities, and was much read ; but they were not of equal merit, and are now nearly forgotten. About the same time he published an edition of Don Quixote, with a Life of Cervantes, and copious notes, and also collected from Blackwood’s Magazine, and from the Edinburgli Annual Register, the Spanish Ballads contained in this volume. These celebrated translations appeared at a time when Spanish litera- ture was beginning to attract much attention in England, and they soon became popular. This popularity they have ever since maintained ; and their real merits ai’e acknowledged by all competent critics. Yet it must be admitted that they are bold and spirited paraphrases, rather than exact translations. Since their publication much new light has been thrown upon Spanish literature and history by the writings of Southey, Frere, Ford, Lord Holland, Lord Mahon, and William Stirling, in England, and of Prescott and Ticknor in this country. In the admirable History of Spanish Literature by Mr. Ticknor, the most thorough and scholaily work of its kind which has yet appeared in any language, the reader will find much curious information in regard to the old ballad literature of Spain, and VI BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE. some excellent translations. But notwithstanding the greater familiarity with Spanish literature now common, Lockhart’s Spanish Ballads must continue to hold a high place among simi- lar productions ; and it has been judiciously remarked, that they will preserve his name longer than any of his original pro- ductions. Two years after the publication of the Ballads he published a Life of Burns. Though the researches of subsequent biogra- phers have brought to light some new facts in regard to the poet’s personal history, this Life is one of the best biographies of him which we possess, and is written in a pleasing and graceful style. These different works had already given Lockhart an extended reputation, and not long after the withdrawal of Gifford, the first editor of the Quarterly Review, he was appointed to the editorial charge of that journal, upon the recommendation of Sir Walter Scott. This office he continued to hold for more than a quarter of a century, until he Avas compelled to resign it in 1853, in consequence of failing health. During the Avhole of this period his editorial duties were discharged with signal ability, and the Review maintained a high character, notwithstanding the occasional virulence of its tone, and the gross injustice of some of its literary judgments. Upon his apjiointment as editor of the Quarterly Review, Lockhart removed to London ; and here he resided for the greater part of the time until his death. In 1829 he published a second biographical work, a Life of Napoleon Bonaparte, in two small volumes, which had a con- siderable popularity at the time, and was reprinted in this coun- try. This was followed, in 1836, by the first volume of his Life of Sir Walter Scott ; and the whole work, extending to seven volumes, was completed within the next two years. The Life of Scott is the most elaborate and best known of Lockhart’s original works, and deservedly ranks among the most successful biographies in our language. It exhibits, indeed, a characteristic BIOGRAPHICAL NOUCE. VII bitterness of tone in the discussion of some personal questions, but it is charmingly written, and possesses a deep and often touching interest. In 1813 he was appointed to the sinecure office of Auditor of the Duchy of Cornwall, by Sir Robert Peel, as a reward for his past services in the editorship of the Quarterly Review, His income had long been considerable for a man of letters ; and after this addition to it he confined his literary labors to the pages of the Review. After relinquishing his charge of this journal, in 1853, he visited Italy for the benefit of his liealth. But he gained little by the journey ; and his death occurred not long after his return to England. He died at Abbotsford, then the residence of his son-in-law, on the 25th of November, 1854. It has often been remarked, that the life of a literary man affords few marked incidents from which to construct an in- teresting narrative. Yet the lives of men of letters are among the most attractive biographies which we possess ; and from the relation in which Lockhart stood to the literary men of one of the two great political parties in England, his life, if fairly and honestly written, can scarcely fail to be full of rich and varied interest. For such a memorial of his life and character, it is said that he left ample materials in the form of an autobiography. If this statement is correct, it is to be hoped that the volume will soon be given to the public, under the editorial supervision of some competent person. C. C. S. INTRODUCTION. The intention of this publication is to furnish the English reader with some notion of that old Spanish minstrelsy, which has been preserved in the different Cancioneros and Romanceros of the sixteenth century. That great mass of popular poetry has never yet received in its own country the attention to which it is entitled. Wliile hundreds of volumes have been ■written about authors who were, at the best, ingenious imitators of classical or Italian models, not one, of the least critical merit, has been bestowed upon those old and simpler poets who were contented with the native in- spirations of Castilian pride. No Spanish Percy, or Ellis, or Ritson, has arisen to perform what no one but a Spaniard can entei-tain the smallest hope of achie'ving. Ml-. Bouterwek, in his excellent History of Spanish Literature (Book I. Sect. 1), complained that no attempt had ever been made even to arrange the old Spanish ballads in anything like chronological order. An ingeni- ous countryman of his cwn, Mr. Depping, has since, in some measure, sup- plied this defect. He has an-anged the historical ballads according to the chronology of the persons and events which they celebrate ; for even this ob-vdous matter had not been attended to by the original Spanish collectors ; hut he has modestly and judiciously refrained from attempting the chrono- logical an-angement of them as compositions; feeling, of course, that no person can ever acquire such a delicate knowledge of a language not his X INTRODUCTION. own, as might enable him to distinguish, with accuraey, between the dift'er- ent shades of antiquity, — or even jierhaps to draw with certainty and pre- cision the broader line between that which is of genuine antiquity and that which is mere modern imitation. By far the greater part of the following translations are from pieces which the reader will find in Mr. Depping’s Collection, published at Leipsic in 1817. The first Cancionero, that of Ferdinand de Castillo, appeared so early a.s 1.510. In it not a few ballads both of the historical and of the romantic class arc included : and as the title of the book itself bears “ Obras de todos o de los mas principales Trobadoras de Espana, assi aniiguos como iiiodernos,” it is clear that at least a certain number of these pieces were considered as entitled to the appellation of “ancient,” in the year 1510. The Cancionero de Romances, published at Antwerp in 1555, and afterwards often reprinted under the name of Eomancero, was the earliest collection that admitted nothing but ballads. The Romancero Historiado of Lucas Eodriguez aj^peared at Alcala, in 1759 ; the collection of Lorenzo de Se- pulveda, at Antwerp, in 1566. The ballads of the Cid were first published in a collected form in 1615, by Escobar. But there are not wanting circumstances which would seem to establish, for many of the Spanish ballads, a claim to antiquity much higher than is to be inferred from any of these dates. In the oldest edition of the Cancionero General, for example, there are several pieces which boar the name of Don Juon Manuel. If they were composed by the celebrated author of Count Lucanor, (and it appears very unlikely that any person of less distinguished rank should have assumed that style without some addition or distinction,) we must cany them back at least as far as tbe year 1362, when the Prince Don Juan Manuel died. But this is not all. The ballads bearing the name of that illustrious author are so far from appear- ing to be among the most ancient in the Cancionero, that even a veiy slight examination must be sufficient to establish exactly the reverse. The regu- larity and completeness of their rhjnnes alone are quite enough to satisfy any one who is acquainted with the usual style of the redonddlas, that the ballads of Don Juan Manuel are among the most modern in the whole col- lection. INTKODUCTION. XI But indeed, whatever may be the age of the ballads now extant, that the Spaniards had ballads of the same general character, and on the same subjects, at a veiy early period of their national history, is quite certain. In the General Chronicle of Spain, wliich was compiled in the thirteenth century at the command of Alphonso the Wise, allusions are perpetually made to the popular songs of the Minstrels, or Joglares. Now it is evident that the phraseology of compositions handed down orally from one genera- ‘•on to another, must have undergone, in the course of time, a great many alterations ; yet, in point of fact, the language of by far the greater part of the Historical Ballads in the Romancero does appear to carry the stamp of an antiquity quite as remote as that used by the compilers of the General Chronicle themselves. Nay, some of those very expressions from which Mi-. Southey would seem to infer that the Chronicle op the Cid is a more ancient composition than the General Chronicle op Spain (which last was written before 1384), are quite of common occun-ence in these same ballads, which Mr. Southey considers as of comparatively modem origin.* All this, however, is a controversy in which few English readers can be expected to take much interest. And, besides, even granting that the • Spanish ballads were composed but a short time before the first Cancioneros were published, it would still be certain that they form by far the oldest, as well as largest, collection of popular poetry, properly so called, that is to be found in the literature of any European nation whatever. Had there been published at London, in the reign of our Henry VIII., a vast collec- tion of English ballads about the wars of the Plantagenets, what illusti-a- tion and annotation would not that collection have received long ere now ! How the old Spaniards should have come to be so much more wealtliy in this soi-t of possession than any of their neighbors, it is not very easy to say. They had their taste for warlike song in common with all the other members of the great Gothic family ; and they had a fine climate, afford- ing, of course, more leisure for amusement than could have been enjoyed beneath the rougher sky of the North. The flexibility of their beautiful * See the Introduction to Mr. Southey’s Chronicle of the Cid, p. v , note. Xll INTRODUCTION. language, and the extreme simplicity of the versification adopted in their ballads, must, no doubt, have lightened the labor, and may have conse- quently increased the number, of their professional minstrels. To tell some well-known story of love or heroism in stanzas of four octo- syllabic lines, the second and the fourth terminating in the same rhyme, or in what the musical accompaniment could make to have some appearance oj being the same, — this was all that the art of the Spanish coplero, in its most perfect state, ever aspired to. But a line of seven or of six syllables was admitted whenever that suited the maker better than one of eight : the stanza itself varied from four to six lines, with equal ease ; and as for the matter of rhyme, it was quite sufficient that the two corresponding sylla- bles contained the same vowel.* In a language less abundant in harmoni- ous vocables, such laxity could scarcely have satisfied the car. But the Spanish is, like the sister Italian, music in itself, though music of a bolder character. I have spoken of the structure of the redondillas, as Spanish ^vriters generally speak of it, when I have said that the stanzas consist of four lines. But a distinguished Gcnnan antiquary. Mi'. Grimm, who published a little sylva of Spanish ballads at Vienna in 1815, expresses his opinion that the stanza was composed in reality of two long lines, and that these had subsequently been cut into four, exactly as we know to have been the case in regard to our own old English ballad-stanza. Mr. Grimm, in his small but very elegant collection, prints the Spanish verses in what he thus supposes to have been their original shape ; and I have followed his ex- ample in the form of the stanza which I have for the most part used. So far as I have been able, I have followed Mr. Depping in the classifi- cation of the specimens which follow. The reader will find placed together at the beginning those ballads wliich * For example : — Y arrastrando luengos lutos Entraron treynta Jidalgos Escuderos de Ximena Ilija del conde Locano, But, indeed, even this might be dispensed with. INTRODUCTION. NIU U'cat of persons and events kno^vn in the authentic history of Spain. A few concerning the unfortunate Don Roderick and the Moorish conquest of the eighth century, form tlie commencement ; and the series is carried doum, though of course with wide gaps and intervals, yet so as to furnish something like a connected sketch of tlie gradual progress of the Christian anns, until the surrender of Granada, in the year 1492, and the consequent flight of the last Moorish sovereign from the Peninsula. Throughout that very extensive body of historical ballads from which these specimens have been selected, there prevails a uniformly high tone of sentiment ; — such as might have been expected to distinguish the popu- lar poetry of a nation proud, haughty, free, and engaged in continual war- fai-e against enemies of different faith and manners, but not less proud and not less warlike than themselves. Those petty disputes and dissensions which so long divided the Christian princes, and, consequently, favored and maintained the power of the fomidable enemy whom they all equally hated ; those struggles between prince and nobility, which were productive of similar effects after the crowns of Leon and Castile had been united ; those domestic tragedies which so often stained the character and weakened the arms of Spanish kings ; — in a word, all the principal features of the. old Spanish history may be found, more or less distinctly shadowed forth, among the productions of these unflattering minstrels. Of the language of Spain, as it existed under the reign of the Visigoth kings, we possess no monuments. The laws and the chi’onicles of the period were equally written in Latin ; and although both, in all probability, must have been frequently rendered into more vulgar dialects, no traces of any such versions have survived the many storms and straggles of religious and political dissension, of which this interesting region has since been made the scene. To what precise extent, therefore, the language and literatm-e of the Peninsula felt the influence of that great revolution which subjected the far larger part of her teiritoiy to the sway of a Mussulman sceptre, and how much or how little of what we at this hour admire or con- demn in the poetry of Portugal, Aragon, Castile, is really not of Spanish, but of Moorish origin, — these are matters which have divided all the great writers of literaiy history, and which we, in truth, have little chance XIV INTRODOCTION. of ever seeing accurately decided. No one, however, who considers of what elements the Christian population of Spain was originally composed, and in what shapes the mind of nations every way kindred to’that popula- tion was expressed during the Middle Ages, can have any doubt that great and remarkable influence was exerted over Spanish thought and feeling — and, therefore, over Spanish language and poetry — by the influx of those Oriental tribes that occupied, for seven long centuries, the fairest prov- inces of the Peninsula. Spain, although of all the countries which owned the authority of the Caliphs she was the most remote from the seat of their empire, appears to have been the very first in point of cultivation ; — her governors having, for . at least two centuries, emulated one another in affording every species of encouragement and protection to all those liberal arts and sciences which first flourished at Bagdad under the sway of Haroon Al-Raschid, and his less celebrated, but perhaps still more enlightened son, Al-Mamoun. Be- neadi the wise and munificent patronage of these rulers, the cities of Spain, witliin three hundred years after the defeat of King Roderick, had been everywhere penetrated with a spirit of elegance, tastefulness, and philos- ophy, which afforded the strongest of all possible contrasts to the contem- porary condition of the other kingdoms of Europe. At Cordova, Granada, Seville, and many now less considerable towns, colleges and libraries had been founded and endowed in the most splendid manner, — where the most exact and the most elegant of sciences were cultivated together with equal zeal. Averroes translated and expounded Aristotle at Cordova; Ben-Zaid and Aboul-Mander wrote histories of their nation at Valencia ; Abdcl-Maluk set the first example of that most interesting and useful species of writing, by which Moreri and others have since rendered ser- vices so important to ourselves ; and even an Ai'abian Encyclopaedia was compiled, under the direction of Mohammcd-Aba-Abdalla, at Granada. Ibn-el-Beither went forth from Malaga to search through all the mountains and plains of Europe for everything that might enable him to perfect Ills favorite sciences of botany and lithology, and his works still remain, tw excite the admiration of all who are in a condition to comprehend theuf value. The Jew of Tudela was the worthy successor of Galcu and Hq/- INTKODUCTIOS. X7 pocrates : while chemistry, and other branches of medical science, almost unknomi to the ancients, received their first astonishing developments from Al-Kasi and Avicenna. Rhetoric and poetiy were not less diligently studied ; and, in a word, it would be difficult to point out, in the whole his- tory of tlic world, a time or a country where the activity of the human in- tellect was more extensively, or usefully, or gracefully exerted tlian in Spain, while the Mussulman sceptre yet retained any portion of that tdgor which it had originally received from the conduct and heroism of Tarifa. Although the difference of religion prevented the Moors and their Span- ish subjects from ever being completely melted into one people, yet it appears that nothing could, on the whole, be more mild than the conduct of the Moorish government towards the Christian population of the country, during this their splendid period of undisturbed dominion. Their learning and their arts they liberally communicated to all who desired such partici- pation ; and the Christian youth studied freely and honorably at the feet of Jewish physicians and Mohammedan philosophers. Communication of studies and acquirements, continued through such a space of years, could not have failed to break dow, on both sides, many of the barriers of relig- ious prejudice, and to nourish a spirit of kindliness and charity among the more cultivated portions of cither people. The intellect of the Christian Spaniards could not be ungrateful for the rich gifts it was every day re- ceirtng from their misbelieving masters ; while the benevolence tvith which instructors ever regai-d willing disciples, must have tempered in the minds of the Arabs the sentiments of haughty superiority natural to the breasts of conquerors. By degrees, however, the scattered remnants of unsubdued Visigoths, who had sought and found refuge among the mountains of Asturias and Galicia, began to gather the strength of numbers and of combination, and the Mussulmans saw different qjortions of their empire successfully \vi-ested from their hands by leaders whose descendants assumed the titles of Kings in Oviedo and Navarre, and of Counts in Castile, Soprarhia, Aragon, and Barcelona. From the time when these principalities were established, till all their strength was united in the persons of Ferdinand and Isabella, a perpetual war may be said to have subsisted between the professors of die XVI INTRODUCTION. two religions ; and the natural jealousy of Moorish governors must l ave gradually, l)ut effectually, diminished the comfort of the Christians who yet lived under their authority. Were we to seek om- ideas of the period only from the events recorded in its chronicles, we should bo led to believe that nothing could be more deep and fervid than the spirit of mutual hostility which prevailed among all the adherents of the opposite faiths : hut exter- nal events are sometimes not the surest guides to the spirit wlietlier of peoples or of ages, and the ancient popular poetry of Spain may be refeiTcd to for proofs, which cannot be considered as cither of dubious or of trivial value, that the rage of hostility had not sunk quite so far as might have been imagined into the minds and hearts of very many that were engaged in the conflict. There is indeed nothing more natural, at first sight, than to reason in some measure from a nation as it is in our own day, back to what it was a few centuries ago ; but nothing could tend to greater mistakes than such a mode of judging applied to the case of Spain. In the erect and higli- spirited peasantry of that country we still see the genuine and uncoiTupted descendants of their manly forefathers ; hut in every other part of the population the progress of coiTuption appears to have been not less power- ful tlian rapid : and the higher we ascend in tlie scale of society, the more distinct and mortifying is the spectacle of moral, not less than of physical deterioration. This universal falling off of men may bo traced very easily to a universal falling off in regard to every point of faith and feeling most essential to tlie foraiation and preservation of a national character. Wo have been accustomed to consider the modern Spaniards as the most bigoted, and enslaved, and ignorant of Europeans ; but we must not forget that the Spaniards of three centuries back were, in all respects, a very different sot of beings. Castile, in the first regulation of her constitution, was its free as any nation needs to be for all the ])ur])oses of social security and individual happiness. Her kings were her captains and her judges, the chiefs and the models of a gallant nobility, and the protectors of a manly and independent peasantry : but the authority with which they were invested was guarded by the most accurate limitations ; nay, in case they should exceed the boundaiy of their legal power, the statute* INTlJODL^CTiOX. XVli book of the realm itself contained exact rules for the conduct of a constitu- tional insurrection to recall them to their duty, or to punish them for its desertion. Every order of society had, more or less du'ectly, its represent- atives in the national council ; every Spaniard, of whatever degree, was penetrated with a sense of his own dignity as a freeman, — his own nobility as a descendant of the Visigoths. And it is well remarked by an elegant liistorian of' our day,* that, even to this hour, the influence of tliis happy order of things still continues to be felt in Spain, — wlicrc manners, and language, and literature, have all received indelibly a stamp of courts, and aristocracy, and proud feeling, — which affords a striking contrast to what may be observed in modern Italy, where the only freedom that ever existed had its origin and residence among citizens and merchants. The civil liberty of the old Spaniards could scarcely have existed so long as it did, in tire presence of any feeling so black and noisome as the bigotry of modern Spain ; but this was never tried ; for down to the time of Charles V. no man has any right to say that the Spaniards were a bigoted people. One of the worst features of their modern bigotry — their extreme and servile subjection to the authority of the Pope — is entirely a-wanting in the picture of their ancient spirit. In the twelfth century, the Kings of Ai'agon were the protectors of the Albigenses ; and their Pedro II. himself died, in 1213, fighting bravely against the red cross, for the cause of tolerance. In 1268, two brothers of the King of Castile left the banners of tlie Injidels, beneath which they were serving at Tunis, with eight hundred Castilian gentlemen, for the purpose of coming to Italy and assisting the Neapolitans in their resistance to the tyranny of the Pope and Charles of Anjou. In the great schism of the West, as it is called (1378), Pedro IV. embraced the party which the Catholic Churcli regards as schismatic. That feud was not allayed for more than a hundred years, and Alphonso V. was well paid for consenting to lay it aside ; while, down to the time of Charles V., the whole of the Neapolitan princes of the House of Aragon may be said to have lived in a state of open enmity against the Papal See, — sometimes excommunicated for generations together, sel- * Sismondi’s Literature du Midi. 2 xriii INTRODUCTION. doin apparently, never cordially reconciled. When, finally, Ferdinand the Catliolic made his first attempt to introduce the Inquisition into his king- dom, almost tlic whole nation took up arms to resist him. The Grand Inquisitor was killed, and every one of his creatures was compelled to leave, for a season, the yet free soil of Aragon. But the strongest and best proof of the comparative liberality of the old Spaniards is, as I liave already said, to be found in their Ballads. Tliroughout the far greater part of those compositions, there breathes a certain spirit of charity and humanity towards those Moorish enemies with whom the combats of the national heroes are represented. The Spaniards and the Moors lived together in their villages, beneath the calmest of skies, and surrounded with the most beautiful of landscapes. In spite of their adverse faiths, in spite of their adverse interests, they had much in common. Loves, and sports, and recreations; — nay, sometimes their haughtiest rec- ollections were in common, and even their heroes were the same. Ber- nardo del Carpio, Fernan Gonzalez, the Cid himself, — almost every one of the favorite licroes of the Spanish nation, had, at some period or other of his life, fought beneath the standard of the Crescent, and the minstrels of cither nation miglit, therefore, in regard to some instances at least, have equal ])ride in the celebration of their prowess. The praises whiclt the Arab poets granted to them in their UrouwachcJiali, ov