A Spanish Anthology

Use of the present Anthology in the Spanish classes at Harvard University has shown that Spanish verse appeals to the imagination of the English-speaking student. On that account, the editor now ventures to offer this book for general academic use. The volume should not be without a certain popular value also, since many poems are included in it that through translations have been introduced into English literature, and, like Longfellow’s version of the Coplas of Manrique, have there made their fortune.

Indulgence is asked in cases where the readings of a particular text may not seem satisfactory. Access to the manuscripts or to rare early editions alone could justify the alteration of passages which even in the best editions available seem to have faulty readings. The editor has taken the liberty, however, of changing s to z in the older texts, where it was clear that the appearance of the former letter (as in rason, desir, etc.) was due to a common mistake of the first editors, who confused the z and the cursive s of their manuscripts.

Errors of judgment in the selection of the poems were perhaps inevitable. At any rate, the editor does not believe himself exempt from such errors. Of the anthologies of Spanish verse already in existence he has found it particularly useful to consult the following:

vi

M. Menéndez y Pelayo: Antología de poetas líricos castellanos, Madrid, 1890 and since.

Id.: Antología de poetas hispano-americanos, Madrid, 1893.

F. Wolf: Floresta de rimas modernas castellanas, Paris, 1837.

C. M. de Vasconcellos: Antología Española, 1ª parte, Leipzig, 1875.

The very best account of Spanish lyric poetry may be found in the various Prologues and Introductions to the two Anthologies of Menéndez y Pelayo.

vii

		page
Introduction		xv
Index of Authors		xlix
I.—POESÍAS DE LOS SIGLOS XIII-XV
Aventura Amorosa	Anónimo	3
Cántica de la Virgen	Gonzalo de Berceo	8
De las Propiedades que las Duennas Chicas han	Ruiz	9
Cantiga de Ciegos		11
Á la Muerte del Príncipe D. Alfonso	Manuel	13
Cantar: Sennor, si tú has dada	López de Ayala	14
Cantar: Á la Virgen		15
La Danza de la Muerte	Anónimo	16
Revelación de un Ermitaño	Anónimo	21
«A aquel árbol, que mueve la foxa»	Furtado de Mendoza	23
Cantiga: Sevilla	Álvarez de Villasandino	24
Dezir	Imperial	25
Dezir sobre la Fortuna	Páez de Ribera	26
«Si Dios, nuestro Salvador»	Álvaro de Luna	28
Decir en Honor de Leonor de los Paños	Pérez de Guzmán	29
El Laberinto	Juan de Mena	31
Cantarcillo	Cota	32
Coplas de Mingo Revulgo	Anónimo	32
Sonetos Fechos al Itálico Modo	López de Mendoza	34
Serranilla		35
Villancico		36
Querella	Lope de Estúñiga	37
Canción	Suero de Quiñones	38
Replicaçion contra Manuel	Alfonso de Baena	39
Respuesta contra Alfonso	Manuel de Lando	39
Canción	Carvajal	40
Coplas á Diego Arias de Avila	Gómez Manrique	40
A una Dama que iba Cubierta		41
viii Porque Estando Él Durmiendo le Besó su Amiga	Jorge Manrique	42
A la Muerte del Maestre de Santiago Don Rodrigo Manrique, su Padre		43
Canción	Cartagena	57
A la Virgen	Rodríguez del Padrón	58
Oración	Tallante	58
Canción	El Comendador Escribá	59
Letra	Gato	59
El Beso	Anónimo	60
II.—POESÍAS DE LOS SIGLOS XVI-XVII
Contra los que Dicen Mal de Mujeres	Juan del Encina	63
Romance	Manuel de Urrea	65
Canción	Gil Vicente	67
Sonetos	Boscán Almogaver	67
Octava Rima		68
Egloga: Salicio y Nemoroso	Garcilaso de la Vega	70
Soneto		72
Soneto	Fernando de Acuña	72
Madrigales	Gutierre de Cetina	73
Al Silencio de las Quejas	Hurtado de Mendoza	74
Soneto		75
Contra los que Dejan los Metros Castellanos y Siguen los Italianos	Cristóbal de Castillejo	75
Soneto		77
Soneto		78
Visita de Amor	Gregorio de Silvestre	78
Glosa		79
Redondillas á unos Cabellos Prendidos con Cordón de Seda Verde	Jorge de Montemayor	80
Villancico	Luis de Camoens	81
Letrilla		82
Una Glosa	Santa Teresa de Jesus	82
Letrilla (que Llevaba por Registro en su Breviario)		85
Soneto: Por la Vitoria de Lepanto	Fernando de Herrera	86
Soneto: A Sevilla		86
Canción: Al Sueño		87
Canción: Por la Vitoria de Lepanto		88
ix La Vida del Campo	Luis de León	95
La Ascensión del Señor		97
A Felipe Ruiz		98
Profecía del Tajo		100
Noche Serena		103
Canción: Noche Oscura del Alma	San Juan de la Cruz	105
Imitación del Cantar de los Cantares	Malón de Chaide	107
Canzoneta	Timoneda	108
Egloga: Tirsi	Francisco de Figueroa	109
Octavas	Barahona de Soto	110
Soneto: A Cristo Crucificado	Anónimo	111
Soneto	Arias Montano	111
Romance Histórico: Romance del Rey Don Rodrigo, Cómo Perdió á España	Anónimo	112
Romance Histórico: Bernardo Llora á su Padre y Celebra sus Obsequias	Anónimo	114
Romance Histórico: Romance de Don Rodrigo de Lara	Anónimo	116
Romance Histórico: Casamiento del Cid con Jimena	Anónimo	117
Romance Histórico: El Cid Va en Romería á Santiago.—Milagro del Gafo	Anónimo	119
Romance Histórico: De la Muerte de la Reina Blanca	Anónimo	122
Romance Morisco: La Conquista de Alhama	Anónimo	124
Romance Caballeresco: Doña Alda Llora la Muerte de Roldán	Anónimo	126
Romance Caballeresco: La Constancia	Anónimo	128
Romance Erótico: Rosa Fresca	Anónimo	128
Romance Erótico: Fonte Frida	Anónimo	129
«Mientras duerme mi niño»	Canción Anónima	130
El Sueño	Baltasar de Alcázar	131
Sobre los Consonantes		132
«Quién menoscaba mis bienes»	Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra	133
Canción		134
Soneto		135
x Glosa		135
Soneto	Lupercio Leonardo de Argensola	137
Canción (Traducción de Horacio: Beatus Ille)		137
Soneto	Bartolomé Leonardo de Argensola	140
Epigrama (Traducción de Marcial)		140
Romance	Luis de Argote y Góngora	141
Villancico		142
Soledad Primera		143
Soneto (Contra los que Dijeron Mal de las Soledades)		144
Soneto	Conde de Villamediana	144
Epigramas		145
Redondillas	Vicente Espinel	145
Letrilla		146
Canción de la Virgen	Lope Félix de Vega Carpio	147
Romance		148
Sonetos		151
Mañana		152
El Buen Pastor		152
A la Nueva Lengua		153
Un Soneto		153
Letra de Cristo al Alma	José de Valdivielso	154
Idilio: La Fábula del Genil	Pedro de Espinosa	155
Soneto: «Estas purpúreas»		156
Oda: A las Ruinas de Itálica	Caro	156
Silva: Acaecimiento Amoroso	Juan de Jáuregui	157
Letrilla	Gómez de Quevedo y Villegas	159
Soneto		162
Canción		162
Epístola Satírica al Conde de Olivares		163
Soneto		164
Canción: La Tórtola	El Bachiller de la Torre	165
Canción	Francisco de Borja	167
Canción		167
Canción		168
Silva: A la Rosa	Francisco de Rioja	170
xi A la Pobreza		171
A la Riqueza		173
Canción á un Jilguero	Soto de Rojas	175
Cantilena: De un Pajarillo	Manuel de Villegas	175
Cantilena: Del Amor y la Abeja		176
Oda: Al Céfiro		177
Fábula Burlesca de Apolo y Dafne	Polo de Medina	178
Cantarcillo	Calderón de la Barca	180
Décima: A Lope de Vega Carpio		181
El Mágico Prodigioso		181
El Alcalde de Zalamea (Consejo de Crespo á su Hijo)		183
Lágrimas		184
Soneto: A las Ojeras de una Dama	Agustín de Salazar Torres	185
Redondillas	Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz	185
Soneto (Entre Encontradas Correspondencias Vale Más Amar que Aborrecer)		187
III.—POESÍAS DEL SIGLO XVIII
Canción	Ignacio de Luzán	191
Soneto: El Verdadero Amor	García de la Huerta	192
Sátira contra los Malos Escritores de su Tiempo	Pitillas	193
La Fiesta de Toros en Madrid	Nicolás Fernández de Moratín	196
Sobre ser la Poesía un Estudio Frívolo	José de Cadalso	207
Canto Guerrero (para los Asturianos)	Melchor de Jovellanos	208
Oda: A un Ruiseñor	Valdés	211
Romance: La Lluvia		213
Letrilla: A unos Lindos Ojos		214
Traducción del Salmo VIII	González	215
El Murciélago Alevoso		217
Letrilla: La Rosa de Abril	Iglesias de la Casa	221
El Otoño	Álvarez de Cienfuegos	223
Canción		224
xii Fábula: El León y la Cabra	Maria de Samaniego	225
Fábula: El Jabalí y la Zorra		226
El Oso, la Mona y el Cerdo	Tomás de Iriarte	226
Soneto		227
Oda: Los Días	Leandro Fernández de Moratín	228
España Restaurada en Cádiz	Arjona	230
IV.—POESÍAS DEL SIGLO XIX
Oda á España, Después de la Revolución de Marzo	Quintana	235
Oda á Guzmán el Bueno		239
El Dos de Mayo	Gallego	244
La Voluntariedad y el Deseo Resignado	Blanco	249
La Muerte de Jesús	Alberto Lista y Aragón	251
La Victoria de Bailén		253
Los Defensores de la Patria (Canción Cívica)	Juan Arriaza y Superirela	255
Epístola al Duque de Frías (con Motivo de la Muerte de la Duquesa)	Martínez de la Rosa	257
Un Castellano Leal	Ángel de Saavedra	258
Al Faro del Puerto de Malta		266
La Cautiva	José de Espronceda	268
Soneto		270
A Teresa		270
Canción del Pirata		275
La Independencia de la Poesía	Manuel de Cabanyes	279
Indecisión	Zorrilla	280
La Fuente		283
A la Memoria de Larra		284
Toledo		286
A Calderón	Hartzenbusch	287
El Soldado y el Carretero	Bretón de los Herreros	288
Al Huracán	Heredia	289
Oda á Niágara		291
Plegaria á Dios	Plácido	293
El Amor de los Amores	Coronado	294
xiii A Washington	Gómez de Avellaneda	296
A un Ruiseñor		296
La Tumba y la Rosa		298
A la Muerte de Espronceda		298
Plegaria	López de Ayala	300
La Modestia	José Selgas y Carrasco	300
Rimas	Bécquer	303
Al Anochecer	Antonio de Trueba	307
Cantos de Pájaro		308
Cantabria		309
Imitación de los Salmos	Ventura de la Vega	309
La Oración por Todos	Bello	310
Los Sollozos	Ramón de Campoamor y Campoosorio	312
El Mayor Castigo		313
¡Quién Supiera Escribir!		313
El Descreimiento		315
El Cielo de Leopardi		316
Las Dos Grandezas		316
Las Dos Tumbas		318
Noche de Abril	Valera y Alcalá Galiano	319
El Fuego Divino		320
¡Excelsior!	Núñez de Arce	323
A España		324
Miserere		324
En Roma	Marcelino Menéndez y Pelayo	330
Elegía en la Muerte de un Amigo		331
Glossary		337
Notes		343

xv

In the notes to the Anthology an endeavor has been made to indicate clearly the position occupied by each of the poets here represented, with respect to the literary movements of his time. This Introduction, then, need but serve the purpose of outlining those general movements in so far as they have been concerned with lyric production.

Of course we have to do only with the lyric tradition which has found expression in the language of Castile. It is not to be forgotten, however, that it is but one out of several lyric traditions that have flourished within the bounds of Spain; for the Spaniard can point with pride to a poetic production in Latin which extended from the Silver Age of Latin literature well into the Middle Ages, and he knows, too, that the Arabs and the Hebrews who settled on his soil composed and sang in their respective tongues. Those who desire more light upon these traditions will find an interesting account of them in the Prólogo to the first volume of Menéndez y Pelayo’s Antología de poetas líricos castellanos (Madrid, 1890). Suffice it to say that the influence of Arabic and Hebrew literature upon composition in Castilian has been exceedingly slight, and that for literary expression the latter speech is a legitimate heir of Latin in the Iberian peninsula. The Catalan and Portuguese literatures have a tradition entirely xvi independent of that of Castile; we, therefore, disregard them here.

Literature, properly so called, did not appear in the vulgar tongue of Castile until the twelfth century. From that period we have preserved one of the greatest monuments of Old Spanish letters, the epic Poema del Cid. To heroic poetry as instanced by this poem on Roderick of Bivar, which, like most of the early epic legends or cantares de gesta of Castile, must have been produced under the influence of the French chansons de geste, there succeeded, in the thirteenth century, a body of religious and didactic verse, a good part of which is due to the industrious cleric, Gonzalo de Berceo. Very few lyric compositions in Castilian can be found in this century. One, and apparently the earliest of all, is the first piece in our Collection—the Aventura amorosa. Modeled on the French pastourelle or the Provençal pastorela, it shows, like the Spanish heroic legend, the influence of the region whence most of the mediæval Occident derived its first poetic inspiration. Another precious example of lyrism at this early date is a song with certain popular elements in it,—the Cántica de la Virgen, introduced by Berceo into his religious poem, El duelo de la Virgen.

One may marvel that there was so slight an output of Castilian lyric verse at a time when Castile had already begun to be quite active in a literary way. However, the reason is not far to seek. It is found in the fact that the poets of Castile, following what seems to have been a convention with them, wrote their lyrics in the language of an adjoining district, that of Galicia. Into this latter region, as into Portugal generally, the wandering troubadours from Provence had early penetrated, singing everywhere their erotic strains, until, at length, the native poets began to imitate the Provençal manner in their own language, the Galician-Portuguese. Of their amorous and other lyric verse quite an amount is preserved in various Cancioneiros, and these also contain the poems of Castilians xvii and southern Spaniards, who, like the monarch of Castile, Alfonso el Sabio, composed in Galician-Portuguese.[1]

The fourteenth century is marked by the advent of a Castilian poet who writes in his native speech only. This is Juan Ruiz, Archpriest of Hita, the Villon of Spain and the most original Spanish writer of the whole mediæval period. His lyrics, interspersed among the narrative portions of his Cantares, have the note of personal experience. Much has been made of French influence upon Hita, but, when all is said and done, that influence is restricted to a small proportion of his work, and he remains eminently Spanish in manner, although, for his verse forms, he has had recourse to Galician-Provençal models. These same models were present to the mind of the Chancellor López de Ayala for the lyrics contained in his satiric and didactic Rimado de Palacio, written in the second half of the fourteenth century, and in the fifteenth century they were followed by a whole host of verse writers.

During the first half of the fifteenth century, literary activity was centered in the Court of John II., king of Castile. There, statesmen and courtiers of the type of Álvaro de Luna amused themselves by inditing verses in rivalry with the trovadores who lived by the trade; and a considerable number of their productions,—especially those conceived according to the stereotyped Provençal manner, as adopted formerly in Galicia and in later times in Catalonia, and imported from both regions into Castile,—may be found in the Cancionero of Baena.

By the side of this very artificial Court verse, maintaining as it does the earlier lyric tradition that harks back ultimately to the land beyond the Pyrenees, there appear, in the fifteenth century, two other main divisions xviii of poetry showing new forces brought to bear upon Castilian letters. Of these, the one is chiefly governed by an Italian influence, especially by that of Dante, from whose Divina Commedia it derives the allegorical tendency which is its distinguishing mark; the other reveals the influence of the Renaissance in the attention which it pays to the works of classic antiquity, translating and imitating them. These new influences find expression, above all, in the poems of Imperial, Mena and the Marquis of Santillana. Untrammelled by conventions, Jorge Manrique stands somewhat apart from these three poetic movements in his best work, the mournfully melodious Coplas on the death of his father.

To the fifteenth and the following century belongs the great mass of short lyrico-epic poems or ballads, called Romances—a term also applied to lyrics in quatrains having no epic character whatsoever. It was formerly believed that the ballads, most of which deal with subjects from the history of Spain and with the stories of Charlemagne and his peers, were of much greater antiquity; but the artificiality of the style and contents of the majority of them, and the introduction into them of elements of culture and courtliness much more recent than the times to which they relate, fix their composition as hardly earlier than the end of the fifteenth century. Still, the weight of authority ascribes to certain of them an early oral tradition, and even considers some as developed out of passages taken from the old epic Cantares de gesta.

With the sixteenth century, and as the famous siglo de oro (1550-1680) drew near, the number of lyric poets increased greatly, and the Italianizing influences grew in importance. Boscán, Garcilaso de la Vega and Mendoza were the leading champions of the exotic measures, and they thoroughly naturalized in Spain the sonnet, the hendecasyllable, the ottava rima and kindred forms, some of which had already been introduced in the time of Imperial xix and Santillana. Certain spirits, such as Castillejo and Silvestre, opposed, though not consistently, the endeavors of these innovators; but toward the end of the sixteenth century the Italian manner triumphed, particularly in the works of Herrera and his school at Seville.

Mysticism, ever a prominent characteristic of the Spanish temperament, finds most pleasing expression, during the sixteenth century, in the lyrics of a number of clerical writers. The most attractive of them all is Luis de León, deservedly ranked among the greatest Spanish lyric poets. In him an Italian influence, and the humanizing impress of the Renaissance are also visible.

The Italian manner is henceforth, and throughout the seventeenth century, the dominant one in Spanish verse. It is unnecessary to mention the numerous lyrists who adopted it. The great masters of the siglo de oro—Lope, Calderón, Cervantes—used the foreign measures, though, indeed, they constantly recurred to the older domestic forms, such as the romance, the redondillas, etc.

At the very outset of the seventeenth century there manifested itself in Spanish poetry the vitiating influence of Góngora, a writer whose bombastic and obscure style, termed Gongorism after its originator, wrought the same harm in Spanish letters that Marinism wrought in Italy and Euphuism in England. The mannerisms of Góngora were imitated by later poets, so that his school persisted throughout the century, despite the reaction to sanity attempted by the Argensolas, and the satirist Quevedo. Even the virile Quevedo himself yielded finally to the torrent and wrote, in his later period, verse and prose as extravagant of metaphor and as obscure in style as any that ever came from the pen of Góngora.

The siglo de oro was followed by a period of decline in things political, social and literary, which extended through a considerable portion of the eighteenth century. Poetasters abounded, good taste was at its lowest ebb. xx When matters were at about their worst in the world of letters—and the satire of Jorge Pitillas will indicate how great the decay was—Luzán inaugurated a reform movement by proposing, in his Arte poética, to subject all poetic production in Spanish to rigid rules such as Boileau had imposed upon classic French verse. Luzán’s ideas found favor and, despite the counter-efforts of García de la Huerta, a champion of the older Spanish methods and a bitter opponent of innovations, the disciples of Luzán began to compose dramas and lyrics according to the Gallic laws. The most important lyrist of the new movement was Meléndez-Valdés, about whom gathered the so-called Salamancan school of poets. Of these the best was Cienfuegos, who most nearly approached his master Meléndez in the skill with which he versified according to the precepts from abroad. The fabulists Samaniego and Iriarte also underwent French influence.

The opening years of the nineteenth century witnessed a passionate outburst of Spanish patriotism, which found poetic utterance in the odes directed against the Napoleonic invader by the Tyrtæan poet Quintana, by his friend Gallego and other authors. Although leveled against the French, these compositions were framed in obedience to the canons of the French poetic lawgivers. The rules of French classicism prevailed also in the works of the members of a school made up mainly of young clerics, who had their centre at Seville. Lista and Blanco were among the number of these poets, whose use of French methods was tempered somewhat by their imitation of the manner of Herrera, the leader of the school of Seville that had flourished in the sixteenth and the early seventeenth century, and of that of his disciple Rioja.

With the third decade of the century the wave of Romanticism began to sweep over the land. Triumphant with the drama of Rivas, it reached its apogee of lyrism in the verse of that writer and in the works of the Byronic poet Espronceda and of Zorrilla. Not the least attractive xxi among the authors of the Romantic period are the Cuban poets Heredia and Avellaneda.

The Romantic movement passed away and its unrestrained outpourings of the inner man ceased to be fashionable after the middle of the century. Realism, which has prevailed generally in literature since that time, is not too favorable to the composition of lyric verse, and the production of the latter during the last fifty years has been rather individual than characteristic of any school. Bécquer’s Heinesque strains have not been echoed by any one of note; no one has imitated successfully the poetic philosophizing of Campoamor, the winning poet so lately deceased; Núñez de Arce, the author of the Gritos del combate and the Vértigo, has alone found any considerable following; while the humanism of Valera and Menéndez y Pelayo raises their verse to an intellectual level above the comprehension of ordinary men. The gentle mysticism of León, of which reminiscences are found everywhere throughout the works of Valera, is suggested by the lyrics of Carolina Coronado, who is also of the school of St. Theresa.

The following rules are mainly drawn from the excellent Ortología y métrica of A. Bello, published in his Obras completas, Santiago de Chile, 1884, vol. V. Other treatises that may be consulted are E. Benot, Prosodia castellana y versificación, Madrid, 1892; F. Hanssen, Notas á la prosodia castellana, Santiago de Chile, 1900 (in the Anales de la Universidad); Id., Miscelánea de versificación castellana, ibid., 1897; Id., Zur lateinischen und romanischen Metrik, Valparaiso, 1901 (reprint from the Verhandlungen des deutschen Wissenschaftvereins, vol. IV, Santiago de Chile). Cf. also the remarks of E. Stengel in his Romanische Verslehre (pubd. in Gröbers Grundriss xxii der romanischen Philologie, vol. II, part I, Strasburg, 1893) and of G. Baist in his Spanische Literatur (pubd. ibid., vol. II, part II, Strasburg, 1897).

The Latin quantitative principle in versification has given way in Spanish to that of syllabification simply. Account is taken, as a rule, not of the greater or less length of the vowel in the syllabic, but of the number of the syllables in a line and of their rhythmical accent.

(α) Vowels and Syllables Within a Word.

A problem of importance is to determine, when two or more vowels come together, whether they form one syllable or more. The vowels are either strong (a, e, o) or weak (i, y, u), and they come together under three chief conditions; viz., (I) the accent of the word may be on one of the contiguous vowels; (II) it may be on a preceding syllable; (III) it may be on a syllable following them.

I. Combinations of Two Vowels, one of which is Accented

(1) If one of two strong vowels (a, e, o) coming together has the accent, they do not form a diphthong, and therefore do not count as a single syllable in the verse. Dissyllables, for example, are Jaén, nao, leal, león; trisyllables are azahar (h mute), creemos, canoa.

Exceptionally, the two strong vowels are contracted: e.g., Samaniego has contracted them in the hendecasyllable,

and Espronceda in a tetrasyllable,

xxiii

This contraction, called synæresis, is less harsh when the unaccented vowel is e. It is frequent, however, with the first two vowels of ahora.

(2) If two vowels come together, the first strong (a, e, o) and the second weak (i, y, u), and if the accent rests on the strong vowel, they regularly form a diphthong and count as one syllable; e.g., cauto, peine, feudo, convoy, rey, soy. The dissolution of this diphthong constitutes a very violent poetical license. When it occurs it is termed diæresis and is sometimes marked by the dots so called; e.g., glorïoso, suäve.

(3) If the first of the contiguous vowels is strong, and the second weak and accented, they form separate syllables, as in raíz, baúl, roído. Contraction (synæresis) is rare and harsh in such cases: cf. Meléndez Valdés in the hendecasyllable,

(4) If the first of the contiguous vowels is weak and the second strong, and the accent is on the weak vowel, they naturally constitute separate syllables, as in día, río, valúa, lloraríamos.

Synæresis is more frequent and less harsh here than in (3); cf. Garcilaso:

Espronceda:

(5) If the first of two contiguous vowels is weak and the second is strong and accented, the vowels sometimes form one syllable and sometimes do not. Etymological conditions often determine the case; thus fió is a dissyllable, since it comes from a Latin source (fidavit) in which the i was in a syllable by itself, and bien is a monosyllable, since the i and e form a diphthong evolved out of a single Latin vowel (the ĕ of bĕne).

xxiv

The chief cases are as follows:

(a) iè and uè from Latin e and o form diphthongs absolutely indissoluble: diente, muerte.

(b) In conjugation, analogy plays a part, and fiamos follows fiar (with the i and the a in distinct syllables), cambiamos follows cambiar (with the i and the a in the same syllable).

Synæresis readily takes place for vowels ordinarily in distinct syllables (fió, etc.); but diæresis hardly obtains for the vowels of a true diphthong (cambió, etc.).

(c) The combinations ió and iè are usually diphthongs in the terminations of the preterite indicative, the future subjunctive, the past tenses of the subjunctive, and the gerund, of verbs of the second and third conjugations: e.g., murió, muriere, muriese, muriera, muriendo. In rió, deslió, rieron, deslieron, the vowels seem to be considered as forming separate syllables, the i being treated as part of the stem and not of the suffix.

(d) The substantival ending -ión (acción, etc.) is generally a diphthong, and rarely suffers dissolution.

(e) In derivatives analogy operates: e.g., naviero and brioso with their i in a separate syllable because of navío and brío (cf. rule 4); but glorieta and ambicioso with a diphthong because of gloria and ambición. Ordinarily, such ie and io combinations permit of synæresis if they are properly dissyllabic, and if properly diphthongal they remain indissoluble. Still, adjectives in -i.oso and -u.oso sometimes dissolve their diphthong; e.g., as in Espronceda:

Garcilaso:

(6) Two contiguous weak vowels with the accent on the first of them form an indissoluble diphthong; e.g., xxv muy. Cuita, cuido and related forms once accented the u: cf. p. 134, l. 20 where Cervantes has descuido in assonance with confuso. So also, Meléndez Valdés assonated tumba and cuidan. Viùda was formerly víuda, and Tirso de Molina assonated it with Lucía, pican, etc.

(7) If the second of two contiguous weak vowels is accented, there is a diphthong sometimes indissoluble and sometimes dissoluble; e.g., indissoluble are fuí and, in modern usage, cuita, cuido and their derivatives; dissoluble are ruin, ruina, ruido, viudo. These later, however, readily admit synæresis.

Analogy operates in verb forms; thus u is in a syllable apart in huyo, arguyo, and so also in huimos, argüimos (but in such cases synæresis is always possible). In cases of a repetition of the same vowel, synæresis hardly obtains; therefore piísimo and duúnviro have four syllables each.

II. Combinations of Two Vowels with the Accent Preceding them

(1) Two contiguous strong vowels after the accent naturally form two syllables: e.g., Dánao, héroe, temiéndoos. Yet the poets usually make diphthongs of them; e.g., Moratín:

and only exceptionally treat them as dissyllabic; e.g., Samaniego:

(2) If the first of two contiguous vowels after the accent is strong and the second is weak, they form a diphthong, as in amabais, temierais. But it is frequently dissolved with ease, since in many cases the vowels stood xxvi originally in separate syllables; thus amábades and temiérades were good forms down to the seventeenth century.

(3) If the first of two contiguous vowels after the accent is weak and the second strong, there is a diphthong usually indissoluble; e.g., injuria, limpio, continuo. Dissolution is possible, however, where u is the first vowel (as in continuo, estatua).

III. Combinations of Two Vowels before the Accent

(1) Two contiguous strong vowels before the accent naturally form two syllables; e.g., lealtad, roedor are properly trisyllabic. But synæresis is possible, especially where e is one of the vowels.

(2) If the first of two contiguous vowels before the accent is strong and the second is weak, they naturally form a diphthong; vaivén, peinado. They are regularly in distinct syllables, however, when the first vowel (except a) is part of a prefix, as in preinserto, prohijar, rehusado (prefixes pre-, pro-, re-). Nevertheless, synæresis is here permitted, and the diphthong is normal where a is the vowel of the prefix, as in airado, ahumado.

(3) Usage varies when of two contiguous vowels before the accent the first is weak and the second strong. The derivative follows the simplex; thus the i and the a are in separate syllables in criador and criatura because they so stand in criar, they form one syllable in cambiamiento because they do so in cambiar. But synæresis is always possible where the diphthong does not already exist.

(4) If both the contiguous vowels before the accent are weak, they naturally form a diphthong, as in ciudad, cuidado. Derivatives of words of variable syllabification may imitate their simplex: thus viudo may be either dissyllabic or trisyllabic (cf. I, rule 7) and viudez has the same liberty.

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IV. Combinations of Three or more Vowels

(1) Three contiguous vowels with the accent on the first. These offer two possible forms of combinations, viz., one of two vowels with the first accented plus one of two vowels after the accent. To these apply the rules already stated. Thus in lóaos we have óa in two syllables according to I, rule 1, and ao which may be in two syllables by II, rule 1, therefore all three vowels may be in separate syllables. So, too, in iríais we have ía in two syllables by I, rule 4, and ai which forms a diphthong by II, rule 2, therefore the combination íai forms two syllables.

(2) Three contiguous vowels with the accent on the second. There are two combinations possible, one of two vowels with the accent on the second and one of two vowels with the accent on the first. Apply the rules to these: e.g., fiáos has iá in two syllables by I, rule 5 b and áo in two syllables by I, rule 1, so that the combination is trisyllabic; again, cambiáos has iá, a diphthong by I, rule 5 b, and áo in two syllables by I, rule 1, therefore the combination has two syllables; buey has ue, a diphthong by I, rule 5 a, and ey, a diphthong by I, rule 2, so that the whole combination is linked together and forms one syllable as a triphthong.

(3) Three contiguous vowels with the accent on the last. The combinations are one of two vowels before the accent plus one of two vowels accented on the last. So, applying the rules to rehuí, for example, we find eu (h mute) to be a dissyllable by the exception to III, rule 2, and uí to be probably a dissyllable by I, rule 7, so that the combination probably forms three syllables.

(4) Combinations of more than three vowels may be decomposed in a similar way. Thus, decaíais has aíai with four contiguous vowels in three combinations, viz., aí, a dissyllable by I, rule 3; ía, a dissyllable by I, rule 4; ai, a diphthong by II, rule 2, so that the combination has three integral elements and three syllables.

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N.B.—Despite all these rules, it should be noted that the tendency of the language is toward synæresis.

(β) The Value of Contiguous Vowels in Separate Words.

Between the vowels of separate words there may occur synalœpha or hiatus. Synalœpha is the contracting into a single syllable of the vowels ending one word and those beginning the next word, as in hombre ilustre, soberbio edificio, Si á un infeliz la compasión se niega.

The vowels thus contracted are still pronounced separately, except in cases of the repetition of the same vowel, where only a single prolonged sound is heard, as in casa ajena. As synalœpha may take place where synæresis would be impossible, it is governed by somewhat different rules.

Hiatus—which corresponds to diæresis within a word—occurs when there is no contraction of the final vowel of one word and the initial vowel of the next; as in la hora, bella obra.

The following general observations are necessary:

(1) Mute h is disregarded in the verse and does not prevent synalœpha.

(2) An unaccented weak vowel between two other vowels prevents synalœpha of these latter; thus, comercio y agricultura, in which the io is kept apart from the a by the y, which itself forms a diphthong with the a; so also Sevilla ú Oviedo with the a in one syllable and the uo in another. Some writers have violated this rule, but most have observed it.

(3) ó prevents synalœpha and forms a syllable with the following vowel; Lupercio de Argensola:

(4) The conjunction é generally prevents synalœpha; Lupercio de Argensola:

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Synalœpha is not wholly inadmissible.

(5) Two similar contiguous vowels form synalœpha, and the sound is a single prolonged one: el voluble elemento.

Three similar contiguous vowels may form synalœpha, but the combination is a harsh one; as in Maury:

(6) A pause due to a break in sense does not prevent synalœpha.

Rules for Synalœpha

(1) Synalœpha is necessary where two or more unaccented vowels come together (unless a weak unaccented vowel, or the conjunctions ó, é, intervene); Meléndez Valdés:

Quintana:

Calderón:

The synalœpha of five vowels is very rare.

(2) When the vowel at the end of the first word is accented, synalœpha is natural; Quintana:

(3) When the accent is on the last word, synalœpha is the general rule, especially when e is the first vowel; grande hombre, esta alma. Upon occasion hiatus sounds better, and especially so under a strong accent.

(a) Hiatus is preferable when there is a close syntactical connection between the vowel before the accent and the accented vowel, as, e.g., between the definite xxx article or the possessive adjective and its substantive, between the preposition and its object, etc.; Calderón:

Lupercio de Argensola:

(b) The hiatus is most likely when the accented word is at the end of the phrase or verse, or occupies a strongly accented position in the verse; Meléndez Valdés:

Maury:

(c) When the syntactical relation mentioned in (a) exists, but the accented word is not in the position stated in (b), synalœpha may occur; Martínez de la Rosa:

(d) The feeling expressed is sometimes rendered best by synalœpha and again by hiatus; thus, the action is accelerated and the energy increased by synalœpha in:

while in Garcilaso’s line (p. 72, l. 1)

the hiatus marks the deliberation with which the act is performed.

(4) When two accented vowels come together, the hiatus is much more pleasing than the synalœpha; Herrera:

But synalœpha is tolerable when the second accent does not coincide with the end of the clause or with a necessary rhythmical accent; Herrera:

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Quintana:

N.B.—In Old Spanish poetry hiatus prevailed and synalœpha was less common. Cf. F. Hanssen, Notas á la prosodia castellana (cited above).

In general the metre of a Spanish poetical composition is regulated by its pauses, accents, rhyme and, in most cases, its strophic arrangement.

I. Pauses.—Of these there are three kinds:

(1) the pausa mayor, or chief pause, ending the strophe;

(2) the pausa media, or pause of moderate duration, separating the larger symmetrical parts of a strophe;

(3) the pausa menor, or slight pause, separating one verse from another.

The pausa mayor generally coincides with the end of a sentence, or at least (as in sonnets, octaves, etc.) with that of the larger members or clauses of a sentence. The pausa media is more varied in its distribution, since perfect symmetry and continual uniformity would make the metre monotonous. The pausa menor should generally coincide with a break in the thought, but enjambement, or the violent carrying over of the thought from one line to another, is not unknown; cf. p. 97, l. 14.

II. Accents and Rhythm.—The regular recurrence of accents in a verse gives it its rhythmical character. The rhythmical divisions of a Spanish verse are, as a rule, either dissyllabic or trisyllabic. When dissyllabic and accented on the first syllable, they are called trochaic:

When dissyllabic and accented on the second syllable, they are iambic:

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When trisyllabic and accented on the first syllable, they are dactylic; Moratín:

When trisyllabic and accented on the second syllable, they are amphibrachs; Mena:

When trisyllabic and accented on the third syllable, they are anapæsts; Iriarte:

The terms given marked in Latin a quantitative division into feet, while in Spanish they denote only accentual conditions.

A syllable may be lacking at the end of a verse (then called catalectic); trochaic:

in one of amphibrachs:

dactylic:

dactylic with two syllables lacking:

In an iambic or an anapæstic verse, there may be one or two unaccented syllables in excess; in a verse of trochees or amphibrachs, one:

But all verses are not subjected rigorously to rhythmical division according to the types explained. In trochaic and iambic verses not exceeding eight syllables in length xxxiii and not intended for singing, no accent is obligatory except that of the last division (or foot). The rhythmical nature of the composition then depends upon the regular recurrence of this final accent.

Not all accents satisfy the rhythmical requirements in a verse. Insufficient accents are those of the prepositions that have one (contra, para, etc.), those of the demonstratives before their nouns, those of the forms of the indefinite article (the definite article has none), those of monosyllabic adverbs before the words that they modify (bien alojado, etc.). Moreover, the verse is impaired when a strong, accidental accent precedes immediately a necessary accent, as in Mis ruegos cruèl òye.

Cæsura.—In the longer verses, a necessary pause or break in a determined place is called the cæsura. The cæsura requires a strong accent on the word preceding it, and does not prevent synalœpha; Garcilaso:

The different kinds of verse.—N.B. In naming Spanish verse forms, all syllables, even those after the final accent, are taken into account.

The longest trochaic verse is the octosyllabic. In its typical form it has four accents, viz., on the first, third, fifth and seventh syllables:

But only one of the rhythmical accents is necessary, viz., that on the seventh syllable; Heredia:

For the purposes of singing, the third syllable should be stressed as well as the seventh.

Compositions in six-syllabled verses, with the accent on the fifth syllable (hexasyllables), may have the trochaic xxxiv metre, but are likely to intermingle the trochees with amphibrachs; e.g., Espronceda:

Músicas lejànas;	Trochees.
De enlutado pàrche
Redòble monótono;	Amphibrachs.
Cercàno huracán.

Four-syllabled (tetrasyllabic) trochaic lines may accent the first and third syllables, but only the accent on the third syllable is requisite; Iriarte:

When it alternates with other longer verses, the four-syllabled trochaic is called the verso quebrado.

Iambics.—The longest iambic verse is the alexandrine of the French type. It has thirteen syllables and a central cæsura dividing it into hemistichs. The first hemistich may end in a stressed vowel or have an unaccented vowel after the stress, but in the latter case synalœpha must join the unaccented vowel to the following hemistich; Iriarte:

N.B.—When both hemistichs end in an accented vowel, the line has but twelve syllables. Sometimes the alexandrine adapts itself to the anapæstic metre, as in Iriarte:

At all events, the only necessary rhythmical accents are those on the sixth and the twelfth syllable. An older form of the alexandrine also existed (see below).

The eleven-syllabled iambic line is called the heroic xxxv verse, from its use in epics, or the hendecasyllable (see below).

The nine-syllabled iambic verse is of French origin. The perfect type, with accents on the second, fourth, sixth and eighth syllables, is seen in

Only the accent on the eighth syllable is necessary; e.g., Iriarte:

But in songs the fourth syllable should also be stressed.

The seven-syllabled iambic (the heptasyllabic or anacreontic verse) has a necessary accent on the sixth syllable; Villegas:

The perfect type is seen in Villegas:

In songs the fourth syllable is also stressed. Sometimes the anapæst supplants the iambic, e.g., Villegas:

In older Spanish, the alexandrine often consisted of two seven-syllabled iambic verses or half-lines, separated by the cæsura. There might be one or two unaccented syllables after the stressed sixth, and the unaccented syllables did not coalesce with the second half-line, since hiatus, rather than synalœpha, prevailed in Old Spanish; e.g., Berceo:

Some modern poets have imitated this alexandrine, avoiding the hiatus, however.

The five-syllabled (pentasyllabic) iambic verse has a xxxvi necessary stress on the fourth syllable. In this line the iambics easily yield to dactyls; e.g., Moratín:

Here, verses 2 and 4 are typical iambic pentasyllables, 1 and 3 have only the requisite accent on the fourth syllable, 5 and 6 are dactylic.

Dactylic verses.—There are examples of a dactylic hendecasyllable; Iriarte:

The dactylic octosyllable accents the first, fourth and seventh syllables:

The trochaic octosyllable with the necessary accent of the seventh syllable often becomes dactylic; Meléndez:

On the dactylic pentasyllable or adonic verse, see below.

Amphibrachs.—Of a single foot are these verses of Espronceda:

But Bello objects to considering these short lines as individual verses.

Twelve-syllabled (dodecasyllabic) amphibrachs were xxxvii formerly of much use and were called versos de arte mayor; e.g., Mena:

A cæsura divides the line into hemistichs. Properly there should be four accents, viz., on the second, fifth, eighth and eleventh syllables; but the accents of the second and eighth syllables may be lacking.

The cæsura may come immediately after the accented syllable; Mena:

and it may permit of two unaccented syllables before it, though in this case the second hemistich has only five syllables; Mena:

This and the further fact that synalœpha may occur between the hemistichs; Mena:

prove that the two hemistichs really form one verse and not two verses. Still, at times, the cæsura marked an absolute break in the verse, e.g., with hiatus; Mena:

Again the first syllable may be lacking in the first amphibrach; Mena:

The nine-syllabled amphibrach is illustrated in Espronceda’s Estudiante de Salamanca:

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The six-syllabled amphibrach accents the second and fifth syllables in its perfect type; Moratín:

But in pieces of more familiar import, the first accent may be lacking; e.g., Samaniego:

Here the first and fourth verses have only the accent of the fifth syllable.

Anapæsts.—These are most common in the verse of ten syllables, with three necessary accents; Iriarte:

Anapæsts are found also in the verse of seven syllables, though this is usually iambic; Meléndez Valdés:

The iambic hendecasyllable or heroic verse.—This ordinarily has eleven syllables, but it may end in an accented syllable and have only ten (verso agudo), or it may have two unaccented syllables at the end, and in such a case will have twelve syllables (verso esdrújulo). The latter two forms are always introduced into a composition according to some design. The typical form with five accents is rare:

xxxix

All these accents are not necessary, but one of two main schemes of accentuation must be followed; viz., the accents must come on the sixth and tenth syllables, or else on the fourth, eighth and tenth; Rioja:

Mora:

In the second scheme the cæsura properly comes after the stressed fourth or the unstressed fifth syllable.

Sapphic verse.—The sapphic is a hendecasyllable which requires that certain accents be present and that certain syllables be short. The full requirements are:

(1) accents on the fourth, eighth and tenth syllables as in a heroic of the second scheme;

(2) an accent on the first syllable;

(3) that the second and third syllables be short;

(4) that the sixth, seventh and ninth syllables be short;

(5) that the first hemistich end in a word stressed on the penult;

(6) that there be no synalœpha at the cæsura; e.g., Villegas:

Requirements 1, 4 and 5 must be met; the others may occasionally be neglected, thus the accent of the first syllable is lacking in Villegas:

Every sapphic is a good heroic hendecasyllable, but not all heroic hendecasyllables are good sapphics, since the latter are heroics subjected to certain conditions.

Adonic verse.—This is a five-syllabled (pentasyllabic) line of dactyls, in which it is required that the first and fourth syllables be accented, and that the second and third be short; cf. p. 177:

xl

It is really the first hemistich of a sapphic, and in strophic arrangement the two are always associated; cf. the ode of Villegas, p. 177. The strict laws of the sapphic and adonic are sometimes infringed.

III. Rhyme.—There are two kinds of rhyme; consonantal rhyme, in which both the consonants and the vowels agree (donde—responde), and assonance, in which the vowels alone agree and the consonants are disregarded (muero—puerto). In consonantal rhyme both the consonants and the vowels should agree exactly: sabio—labio, orgánica—botánica. Still, as b and v represent the same sound, they may rhyme together, acaba—esclava, recibo—cautivo.

A word should not form consonantal rhyme with itself; although, at times, a simplex is found rhyming with a derivative (precio—menosprecio) or two derivatives rhyme with each other (menosprecio—desprecio). Similar suffixes (verbal, substantival, adjectival, etc., -aba, -eza, -oso) should not rhyme together any more than can possibly be avoided. Adverbs in mente should not rhyme together. Words similar in sound and form, but distinct in sense, may rhyme: ama (“mistress”) and ama (“he loves”).

A series of assonances is offensive in verses having consonantal rhyme, as that in e—o in these four verses of Garcilaso:

Words having a weak accent or none at all, e.g., the definite article and monosyllabic prepositions, should not appear in rhyme, unless, possibly, in jocose style.

Consonantal rhyme may extend to three or more words (as in sonnets, octaves, terza rima), but combinations of three successive rhymes are not very common. Occasionally xli inner rhyme is found (cf. the Latin leonine hexameter), as in Tirso’s El pretendiente:

As has been said, assonance excludes the rhyme of consonants and requires that of vowels alone, from the accented vowel on: clàro—mármol, blànco—amàron. But in words accented on the third last syllable (esdrújulos) or any syllable farther removed from the end (sobresdrújulos), the syllables between the accented one and the last unaccented one are disregarded; so, cándido—diáfano—párvulo—enviándotelos, all form a good assonance in à—o. In accented diphthongs and triphthongs, agreement of the vowels bearing the accent is the sole requirement: piàno—clàustro, ve—agraciéis. In unaccented diphthongs and triphthongs there is required only agreement of the strong vowels: càmbies—amàreis. Cf. the assonance in è—a in the second, fourth, sixth and eighth lines of this passage from a poem of Moratín’s:

These main rules are to be observed:

(1) in words accented on the last syllable (agudos), the assonance is that of the accented syllable only, as in Zorrilla:

(2) words accented on the last syllable (agudos) cannot assonate with those accented on the penult (graves), on the antepenult (esdrújulos), or on any preceding syllable (sobresdrújulos).

(3) the assonance is of two vowels and no more in words accented on the penult (graves), on the antepenult (esdrújulos), or any preceding syllable (sobresdrújulos); cf. the assonance in ù—o in mùstio—fúlgido—púsoselo.

Penults may assonate arbitrarily with antepenults, but the effect is better when penults assonate with penults and antepenults with antepenults. But little use is made in rhyme of words accented on a syllable preceding the antepenult.

In the final unaccented syllable, as the result of an obscured pronunciation, i and u, if not in diphthongs, assonate as e and o respectively, e.g., cáliz—vàlle, débil—vèrde, Vènus—cièlo, espíritu—efímero. Possible assonances are, then, those in á, é, í, ó, ú (a difficult one), à—a, à—e, à—o, è—a, è—e, è—o, ì—a, ì—e, ì—o, ò—a, ò—e, ò—o, ù—a, ù—e, ù—o.

Because of the great difficulty that they present, continuous rhymed antepenults (esdrújulos) have not been much used. In strophic compositions, unrhymed antepenults may terminate certain lines occurring at regular intervals in the poem. Consonant rhyme should be avoided in assonanced poems. In modern Spanish, the assonance of alternate lines is the rule, and, if the composition is short, the one assonance may run all the way through it.

Blank verse.—Lines lacking both consonantal and vocalic rhyme occur and are called versos sueltos (blank verse). Into compositions in verso suelto consonantal rhyme may, however, enter, particularly at the end of the chief sections into which the subject matter is divided.

xliii

IV. Strophes.—The strophe is frequently of arbitrary length, though, when once the poet has fixed the particular measure of his strophe, he is supposed to maintain the same measure throughout his composition.

One of the more common forms is the romance strophe. This generally consists of four verses having the same number of syllables each (normally trochaic octosyllables), and having besides, in the alternate verses, an assonance which remains the same throughout the poem. Cf. on p. 258 the Castellano leal of Rivas, and on p. 148 the Romance of Lope de Vega.

The heroic romance strophe is that consisting of iambic hendecasyllables; Rivas:

The Anacreontic is a romance in seven-syllabled verses, dealing with matter of light import; cf., on p. 211, Meléndez Valdés’s Á un ruiseñor. Romances in short lines of less than eight syllables are called romancillos; e.g.:

The distinguishing features of the romance are, then, (1) the assonance of the alternating lines, and (2) the greater or less pause occurring at the end of every fourth verse. An estribillo, or refrain, may occur at regular intervals in a romance; cf. p. 124, La Conquista de Alhama, and p. 184, Calderón’s Lágrimas. In older Spanish, the romance did not necessarily consist of strophes of four lines, but rather of shorter strophes having two lines only; cf. p. 116, A caza va Don Rodrigo.

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Compositions in seven-syllabled quatrains, dealing with matter of serious or mournful content, are called endechas; and if the last line of each quatrain is a hendecasyllable, they are called endechas reales; e.g.:

The seguidilla is a stanza made up of lines of five and seven syllables arranged in two divisions. The first division consists of a quatrain of alternating seven-syllabled and five-syllabled verses, with the second and fourth verses in assonance. The second division, separated from the first by at least a moderate pause, is made up of three lines, the first and third of five syllables and in assonance, the second of seven syllables. The assonance may vary from stanza to stanza. Cf. Iriarte:

Consonantal rhyme, as well as assonance, occurs in the endechas. In the other stanzas thus far described, assonance prevails, although consonantal rhyme is not excluded.

Of ancient as well as modern use is the strophe well illustrated in the Coplas of Jorge Manrique, cf. p. 43. (N.B. In the text, two independent stanzas are printed together as one stanza.) The scheme is that of a strophe of six trochaic verses with consonantal rhyme in the series a b c a b c; lines 1, 2, 4, 5 have eight syllables each, and lines 3 and 6 have four. Sometimes an extra syllable is xlv prefixed to the short lines, making them iambic in character; cf. p. 43, l. 28, p. 46, l. 8.

The letrilla is a strophic composition of short verses and varied structure. The peculiarity is a refrain (estribillo), recurring at regular intervals; cf. p. 214, ll. 19 ff., p. 221, ll. 23 ff. Sometimes there are two refrains that alternate.

The redondilla stanza is a quatrain of eight-syllabled verses (redondilla mayor)—and occasionally of shorter length, especially of six syllables (redondilla menor)—in which verse 1 stands in consonantal rhyme with verse 4, and verse 2 with verse 3; cf. p. 131. Occasionally the rhymes alternate; cf. p. 226, ll. 23 ff.

The quintilla is a stanza of five verses and only two rhymes, the latter being so distributed that not more than two verses with the same rhyme ever come together; cf. p. 95, León’s Vida del campo. The verses may be all of eight syllables, cf. p. 196, Moratín’s Fiesta de toros, or of mingled hendecasyllables and seven-syllabled lines, cf. p. 195.

The décima (cf. p. 181) is a stanza of ten lines, having four rhymes. The usual scheme for rhyme agreement is 1, 4, 5—2, 3—6, 7, 10—8, 9. In this scheme, a pause occurs at the end of the fourth verse.

The tercetos (borrowed from Italy and called in Italian terza rima) are stanzas of three verses—generally hendecasyllables—so constituted that each stanza is connected by rhyme with the following stanza. The rhyme scheme is as follows: a b a—b c b—c d c...d e d e. Cf. p. 163 and p. 193.

Canción (“song”) is a generic name for all lyric compositions. It is also used in a specific way to denote a poem of iambic hendecasyllables, generally intermingled with verses of seven and even of five syllables. Each line of the strophe stands in consonantal rhyme with some other. The poet constructs the typical strophe according to his fancy, but he must make all the others like it. A xlvi short envoi—usually addressed to the composition itself—may end the poem. Cf. p. 70, ll. 7 ff., p. 87, ll. 4 ff.

The octava rima, or octave, is an eight-lined stanza, generally of hendecasyllables, with consonantal rhyme according to the scheme a b a b a b c c. A pause usually occurs at the end of the fourth line, and frequently also at the end of the second and sixth lines. Cf. p. 68, Boscán’s Octava rima. Examples of octaves in eight-syllabled trochaics and seven-syllabled iambics are also found. An older form of the octave was the so-called Copla (“stanza”) de arte mayor, a stanza containing eight lines of four amphibrachs (or twelve syllables) each, and rhyming according to the scheme a b b a a c c a;[2] cf. p. 31.

The sonnet—a short poem of fourteen hendecasyllables—is of Italian origin and has the conventional Italian forms. It always consists of four divisions, i.e., two quatrains and two tercets, separated from one another by pauses. Two of the commonest arrangements of the rhymes are illustrated by Lope’s Á la nueva lengua, p. 153, and his Mañana, p. 152.

To the composition called versos sueltos, rules hardly apply. While it often consists of iambic hendecasyllables only, or of such verses mingled with seven-syllabled lines, it is really very free in form. Rhyme is only accidental in it; there is no fixed arrangement of verses of different lengths; the position of the pauses is wholly arbitrary. Cf. p. 109, Figueroa’s Tirsi.

There are found other free compositions into which rhyme enters as an essential feature, but which are governed by no law regulating the number and the order of the various kinds of verse, or the distribution of the rhymes and the pauses. Of this class is the silva, composed of iambic hendecasyllables intermingled with seven-syllabled lines. Every verse is made to rhyme by the best xlvii versifiers; but occasionally some lines are left unrhymed; cf. p. 157, Jáuregui’s Acaecimiento amoroso, and p. 170, Rioja’s Á la rosa. There are also silvas with lines of eight syllables or less, having rhyme throughout, but no fixed order of verses; cf. the Cantilenas of Villegas on pp. 175–6.

Many other and quite artificial forms exist, of which space forbids a description. Thus, there are the glosa, cf. p. 82 and p. 135, beginning with a text, a line of which enters into each of the stanzas expounding it; the letra, a poem with short verses and also of the nature of a gloss, cf. p. 59; the madrigal, elaborating a conceit in verses of mingled hendecasyllables and heptasyllables, such as those written by Gutierre de Cetina; cf. p. 73.

Our text also presents examples of certain old forms, originally popular, such as the villancico and the serranilla; cf. pp. 35 and 81. In these the refrain is always an important element.

In more recent times, and especially since the advent of the Romantic Movement of the nineteenth century, the caprice of the poet has invented many forms, the arrangement of which is generally self-evident and need not be explained here.

xlix

	page
Acuña, Fernando de	72
Alcázar, Baltasar de	131
Almogaver, Juan Boscán	67
Álvarez de Cienfuegos, Nicasio	223
Álvarez de Villasandino, Alfonso	24
Álvaro de Luna, el Condestable	28
Álvarez Gato, Juan	59
Anónimo: Aventura amorosa	3
Anónimo: Canción	130
Anónimo: Coplas de Mingo Revulgo	32
Anónimo: El Beso	60
Anónimo: La Danza de la Muerte	16
Anónimo: Revelación de un Ermitaño	21
Anónimo: Romance Caballeresco	126
Anónimo: Romance Caballeresco	128
Anónimo: Romance erótico	128
Anónimo: Romance erótico	129
Anónimo: Romance histórico	112
Anónimo: Romance histórico	114
Anónimo: Romance histórico	116
Anónimo: Romance histórico	117
Anónimo: Romance histórico	119
Anónimo: Romance histórico	122
Anónimo: Romance morisco	124
Anónimo: Soneto, A Cristo crucificado	111
Argensola, Bartolomé Leonardo de	140
Argensola, Lupercio Leonardo de	137
Argote y Góngora, Luis de	141
Arias Montano, Benito	111
Arjona, Manuel María de	230
Arriaza y Superirela, Juan	255
Avellaneda, Gertrudis Gómez de	296
Ayala, Adelardo López de	300
Ayala, Pero López de	14
Bachiller de la Torre, el	165
Baena, Juan Alfonso de	39
Barahona de Soto, Luis	110
Barca, Pedro Calderón de la	180
Bécquer, Gustavo Adolfo	303
Bello, Andrés	310
Berceo, Gonzalo de	8
Blanco, José María	249
Borja, Francisco de	167
Boscán Almogaver, Juan	67
l Bretón de los Herreros, Manuel	288
Cabanyes, Manuel de	279
Cadalso, José de	207
Calderón de la Barca, Pedro	180
Camoens, Luis de	81
Campoamor y Campoosorio, Ramón	312
Caro, Rodrigo	156
Carpio, Lope Félix de Vega	147
Cartagena	57
Carvajal (ó Carvajales)	40
Casa, José Iglesias de la	221
Castillejo, Cristóbal de	75
Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de	133
Cetina, Gutierre de	73
Chaide, Malón de	107
Cienfuegos, Nicasio Álvarez de	223
Coronado, Carolina	294
Cota, Rodrigo	32
Encina, Juan del	63
Escribá, el Comendador	59
Espinel, Vicente	145
Espinosa, Pedro de	155
Espronceda, José de	268
Esquilache, el Príncipe de	167
Estúñiga, Lope de	37
Fernández de Moratín, Leandro	228
Fernández de Moratín, Nicolás	196
Figueroa, Francisco de	109
Furtado de Mendoza, el Almirante Diego	23
Gallego, Juan Nicasio	244
García de la Huerta, Vicente Antonio	192
Garcilaso de la Vega	70
Gato, Juan Álvarez	59
Gerardo de Hervás, José	193
Gómez de Avellaneda, Gertrudis	296
Gómez de Quevedo y Villegas, Francisco	159
Góngora, Luis de Argote y	141
González, Fray Diego	215
Guzmán, Fernán Pérez de	29
Hartzenbusch, Juan Eugenio	287
Heredia, José María	289
Herrera, Fernando de	86
Herreros, Manuel Bretón de los	288
Hervás, José Gerardo de	193
Hita, Arcipreste de	9
Huerta, Vicente Antonio García de la	192
Hurtado de Mendoza, Diego	74
Iglesias de la Casa, José	221
Imperial, Micer Francisco	25
Inés de la Cruz, Sor Juana	185
Iriarte, Tomás de	226
Jáuregui, Juan de	157
Jovellanos, Gaspar Melchor de	208
Juan de la Cruz, San	105
Lando, Ferrant Manuel de	39
León, Fray Luis de	95
Leonardo de Argensola, Bartolomé	140
Leonardo de Argensola, Lupercio	137
Lista y Aragón, Alberto	251
López de Ayala, Adelardo	300
López de Ayala, el Canciller Pero	14
López de Mendoza, Íñigo	34
Luna, el Condestable Álvaro de	28
li Luzán, Ignacio de	191
Malón de Chaide	107
Manrique, Gómez	40
Manrique, Jorge	42
Manuel, Juan	13
Manuel de Lando, Ferrant	39
Manuel de Urrea, Pedro	65
Manuel de Villegas, Esteban	175
Martínez de la Rosa, Francisco	257
Medina, Salvador Jacinto Polo de	178
Meléndez Valdés, Juan	211
Mena, Juan de	31
Mendoza, el Almirante Diego Furtado de	23
Mendoza, Diego Hurtado de	74
Mendoza, Íñigo López de	34
Menéndez y Pelayo, Marcelino	330
Mingo Revulgo, Coplas de	32
Montano, Benito Arias	111
Montemayor, Jorge de	80
Moratín, Leandro Fernández de	228
Moratín, Nicolás Fernández de	196
Núñez de Arce, Gaspar	323
Padrón, Rodríguez del	58
Páez de Ribera, Ruy	26
Pérez de Guzmán, Fernán	29
Pitillas, Jorge	193
Plácido	293
Polo de Medina, Salvador Jacinto	178
Quevedo y Villegas, Francisco Gómez de	159
Quintana, Manuel José	235
Quiñones, Suero de	38
Ribera, Ruy Páez de	26
Rioja, Francisco de	170
Rivas, el Duque de	258
Rodríguez del Padrón	58
Rojas, Pedro Soto de	175
Ruiz, Juan	9
Saavedra, Ángel de	258
Saavedra, Miguel de Cervantes	133
Salazar Torres, Agustín de	185
Samaniego, Félix María de	225
Santillana, Marqués de	34
Selgas y Carrasco, José	300
Silvestre, Gregorio de	78
Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz	185
Soto, Luis Barahona de	110
Soto de Rojas, Pedro	175
Tallante, Mossén Juan	58
Tassis, Juan de	144
Teresa de Jesús, Santa	82
Timoneda, Juan	108
Torre, el Bachiller de la	165
Torres, Agustín Salazar de	185
Trueba, Antonio de	307
Urrea, Pedro Manuel de	65
Valdés, Gabriel de la Concepción	293
Valdés, Juan Meléndez	211
Valdivielso, José de	154
Valera y Alcalá Galiano, Juan	319
Vega, Garcilaso de la	70
Vega, Ventura de la	309
Vega Carpio, Lope Félix de	147
Vicente, Gil	67
Villamediana, Conde de	144
Villasandino, Alfonso Álvarez de	24
Villegas, Esteban Manuel de	175
Zorrilla, José	280

1 3

8

One by one, Death summons the Cardinal, the King, the Patriarch, the Duke, the Archbishop, the Constable, the Bishop, the Knight, the Abbot, the Squire, the Dean, the Merchant, the Archdeacon, the Lawyer, the Canon, the Physician, the Priest, the Husbandman, the Monk, the Usurer, the Friar, the Porter, the Hermit, the Accountant, the Deacon, the Tax-collector, the Sub-deacon, the Sacristan, the Rabi, the Alfaqui, etc. Then come the last two stanzas of the poem.

(Esta es una revelaçión que acaesçió á un ome bueno, hermitanno de santa bida, que estava rezando una noche en su hermita e oyó esta rrevelaçión, el qual luego la escrivió en rymas, ca era sabidor en esta çiençia gaya.)

31 39 58 61 63 67 74 75 78 86 95 107 126 128 131 135 137 143 144 151 152 153 154 155 156

(Advertencia á España, de que ansí como se ha hecho señora de muchos, ansí será de tantos enemigos invidiada y perseguida, y necesita de continua prevención por esa causa.)

170 178 181 189 191 193 223

(Cumple el autor la palabra que dió de escribir un soneto á los ojos de Laura.)

(Oda dedicada á la memoria de Juan de Padilla)

233 235 244 249 251 255 257 279 286 298

(Traducción libre de Victor Hugo)

308

(Imitación de Victor Hugo)

313

(A S.M. la Reina Doña Isabel II)

324 337