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spirit. A third, of whom he likewise speaks, was reported to have died in Galicia for the love of a princefs of Portugal (90): a fpecies of misfortune which frequently happened to the Troubadours of Provence. He even inferts the beginning of one of the love fongs of a certain amourous bard who compofed nothing elfe (91), and gives the names and characters of feveral other poets and Decidores, distinguished, no doubt,in that age, by their celebrity and merit. Songs by many of these, most, or all, perhaps, ancient Coplars, are, with great probability, to be found among the many thoufands preferved in the Cancionero and Romancero general, and other collections of the fame nature, of which there are feveral volumes, fome very bulky.

The old compofers of the Romances and Coplas thought it fufficient to use a certain limited number of feet or fyllables, resembling the rythmus of the Greek and Latin poets. When rime or a correfpondent termination of particular lines was required, it seems to have been enough if the final words agreed in the fame vowels, the confonants being entirely difregarded. A practice which is still adopted as good rime by the modern inventors of these popular performances (92).

Numberlefs are the ballads which the Spaniards have on the story of Charlemagne and the twelve peers of France; of Bernardo del Carpio; their laft Gothic king Rodrigo; the Cid, and others of their ancient heroes; but particularly on Moorish fubjects, and the conflicts between those people and the Spanish cavaliers. A beautiful fpecimen, excellently tranflated by bifhop Percy,

have been under to copy from a writer not born till after his decease, The direct reverse is the fact: Mofen Jorge was the imitator of Petrarch.

(90) Sarmiento, p. 153, 154, 222.

(91) Sarmiento, p. 155.

(92) Idem, p. 152. In the Obras de Don Luis de Gongora (l'incomparable Don Louis de Gongora, le plus beau génie que l'Espagne ait jamais produit). Bruf. 1659. 4to. are numerous fpecimens of Romance writing, and indeed of every other species of Spanish poetry. See Gil Blas, 1. 7. c. 13.

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As inferted in the Reliques of ancient Englis Poetry (93)."

The earlieft of thefe compofitions is thought to be las Coplas de Calainos. This romance relates the adventure of a certain Arab, fo called, an officer of the great Almanzor, who, to gain that prince's daughter, fets out, at her command, to fetch the heads of Rowland, Oliver, and Reynold, the three most famous and valiant of the twelve peers of France: he is met, near Paris, by a champion, who cuts off his head and prefents it to Charlemagne (94). But even this can scarcely be older than the latter part of the fifteenth century; when the conqueft of Granada furnished the Spanish poets with a favorable opportunity to exult over the vanquished Moors; and when Pulci and Boiardo had familiarifed the ftory of the Paladins. Most of these romances are preserved in the collections already mentioned, and all of them are prodigious favourites with the common people, who have numbers by heart, which they are perpetually chanting (95).

Sarmiento, a fagacious and intelligent writer, is of opinion, that fome few years after the time of the twelve peers, of Bernardo del Carpio, the Cid, and others, various romances were compofed in their praife; and were those which the Copleros, Trobadores, and Juglares, and, in fhort, all the lower clafs of people, fung at their feasts. The greatest part of thefe, he thinks, not having been committed to writing, were in time loft; and fuch as were preferved by memory and oral tradition were afterwards fo much altered, when people begun to write them (93) I. 337. beginning

Elegantly rendered

Rio verde, rio verde.

Gentle river, gentle river.

Though the ingenious tranflator did not, it feems, then know that Rioverde is, in this inftance, a proper name.

(94) Sarmiento, p. 232.

(95) Will not the reader immediately recollect the peasant who paffes Don Quixote and his trufty fquire, in the ftreets of Tobofo, cantando aquel Romance que dize: mala la buviftes Francefes, en effa de Roncesvalles; and the curious converfation which enfues thereon. (P. 2. c. 9.)

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in modern Caftilian, that they could not poffibly refemble their originals in language, though they would undoubtedly continue the fame in fubftance. This, he fays, becomes evident, when it is confidered that the Chronica general de Efpan'a, written about the middle of the thirteenth century, and other books of the fame antiquity, frequently cite the fongs and fayings of the Juglars or vulgar poets of that, or a preceding age. He, therefor, concludes, that, though the Romances now extant were not written before the end of the fifteenth century, moft of them were then only altered or modernifed from the compofitions of the twelfth (96). An idea which one would more readily have adopted if the good father had produced or referred to a fingle line upon the ftory of Charlemagne or the Paladins prior to the first of thofe æras. This objection, however, it must be confeffed, does not extend to the fongs or ballads upon other fubjects, many of which may undoubtedly be much older(97).

Some of thefe romances or popular ballads are frequently cited or alluded to in Don Quixote; but the tranflators have uniformly confounded them with books of chivalry, which the word never fignifies in Spanish. A more literal and correct verfion of this admirable history, of which a very elegant and curious edition was lately publifhed at Madrid, has long been, and is likely enough to remain, among the defiderata of English literature.

The ruftics of Spain, like the Improvifatori of Italy, retain, to this day, the talent of extemporal poetry; and fing, as it were, by inspiration (98). In Galicia

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(96) §. 548, 550.

(97) In the ancient romance of TIRANT LO BLANCH, written, in the Valencian dialect, before the year 1460, Hippolito, the emprefses gallant, prays her, one day, as they are fitting together, to fing him a fong. To please him, therefor, fhe fings, in a low voice, 66 un romanç ..... .... de triftany co fe planyia de la lançada del rey march;" a lay or fong of Triftan, in which he complains of the blow of a lance he had received from king Mark. This was, doubtlefs, fome well known Spanish ballad of the authors time; and is reprefented to have been fo tender that Hippolito could not refrain from tears; " ab la dolçor del "cant, deftillaren dels feus vlls viues lagremes." (Capitol. cclxiiij.) (98) See a moft curious and entertaining account of one of those geniuses (a muleteer) in Barrettis Journey through Spain,

VOL. II.

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the women are not only poets but muficians, and compose as well the fongs, which are generally dialogues between a woman and a man (the female being always the principal perfonage) as the melodies or tunes to which they would have them fung; and this by pure nature, without the leaft idea of the mufical art (99). The poetry and poets of this province appear to have enjoyed a diftinguished pre-eminence from the moft remote antiquity.

Portugal, which is here noticed only as a province of Spain, claims a very early and intimate acquaintance with the Lyric mufe. To prove it there are two Cancioneros or collections extant, which contain many fongs of great antiquity and merit. Some of thefe are by K. Dionyfius, who dyed in 1325. This prince was grandíon to Alonso the Wife, king of Caftile, who was likewife an eminent poet. A few others are by Peter I. who dyed in 1367. The whole number of poets whofe compofitions are preferved in these volumes is faid to be immenfe. Both are exceffively rare. The lively genius and fpirit which appear to have characterifed the ancient Portuguese, are not, however, at prefent visible among their defcendants. But, without further notification of the provinces or æras in which poetry and fong appear to have been moft cultivated, popular and fuccefsful in this romantic country, it may be fuffi cient to adopt the words of the excellent writer so often quoted: "en qualquiera edad," fays he, "en qualquiera lengua, y en qualquiera dominio (100), fiempre los Efpan'oles han fido muy aficionados á la Poefia, Mufica, Bayles, y regocijos inocentes (101).”

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6. In an enquiry regarding the genius and language of the Italians, the French, and the Spaniards, one is naturally led to place them next to the Romans, on account of their more intimate and peculiar connection with that nation, without paying much attention to the origin of the people theirfelves: a particular to which we shall in the remainder of this flight effay, attempt to adhere.

(99) Sarmiento, p. 238.

(100) The reader will recollect that the Caftilian (which we call Spanish) is not the only language ufed in Spain, and that this king. dom has not always been under the fway of a fingle monarch.

(101) Sarmiento, §. 539.

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That the Celts, a moft ancient and extenfive European nation, of whofe origin and early history we are entirely ignorant, and from whom the Welsh, the Irish, and the Scotifh-highlanders claim to be defcended, had fongs among them, is a circumftance of which, had there been no direct evidence to the fact, we could scarcely have doubted. "The Celta," fays Pofidonius the Apamean, in the twenty-third book of his hiftories, "even in making war carry "with them table-companions whom they call parafites. "These men celebrate the praises of their masters both "in public, where a croud is collected together, and privately, to feparate individuals who will hear them. And thefe fongfters of theirs are the men called Bards (102).” We have the teftimony of very early writers to prove that the bards or poets of Gaul and Britain recorded the valiant acts of their illuftrious men, which they fung to the harp; that they likewife compofed fongs of praise and fatire; and that their authority was fuch, that armies, on the point of engaging, would separate on their approach, as if charmed by the power of their fongs (103). The character of the British bards is fuppofed to have continued the fame long after the converfion of that people to Christianity, and the fubfequent conqueft of the country by their Saxon allies. The Welsh ftill celebrate the names of Taliefin, Lywarch Hên, and others, bards who flourished in the fixth century, and of whose works they have, at this day, confiderable remains. We find that the bards had not loft their primitive influence over the people even in the time of our Edward I. who was fo irritated at the continual infurrections and disturbances fomented by their fongs, that he caused most of them to be hanged by martial law (104): an event which has been immortalized by the fublime genius of the English Pindar. Many fongs of great antiquity are faid to be ftill extant in Wales; fpecimens of which have been published by the reverend mr. Evans, and others. Dr. Burney mentions a collection, with the original melodies,

(102) Athenæus, p. 246.

(103) Ammia. Marcel. 1. xvi. Diodo. 1. v. (Brown, 2c1.)
(104) Sir J. Wynnes hiftory of the Gwedir family,

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