Que decir podiesse · qual era el dolzor,
Mientre ome viviesse · en aquella sabor
Non avrie sede · nen fame nen dolor.
St. 1976, 1977.
Las dobles in modern Spanish means the tolling for the dead;—here, I suppose, it means some sort of sad chanting.
[89] Los Votos del Pavon is first mentioned by the Marquis of Santillana (Sanchez, Tom. I. p. lvii.); and Fauchet says, (Recueil de l’Origine de la Langue et Poésie Française, Paris, 1581, fol., p. 88,) “Le Roman du Pavon est une continuation des faits d’Alexandre.” There is an account of a French poem on this subject, in the “Notices et Extraits des Manuscrits de la Bibliothèque Nationale,” etc., (Paris, an VII. 4to,) Tom. V. p. 118. Vows were frequently made in ancient times over favorite birds (Barante, Ducs de Bourgogne, ad an. 1454, Paris, 1837, 8vo, Tom. VII. pp. 159-164); and the vows in the Spanish poem seem to have involved a prophetic account of the achievements and troubles of Alexander’s successors.
[90] The extracts are in Castro, (Tom. II. pp. 725-729,) and the book, which contained forty-nine chapters, was called “Castigos y Documentos para bien vivir, ordenados por el Rey Don Sancho el Quarto, intitulado el Brabo”; Castigos being used to mean advice, as in the old French poem, “Le Castoiement d’un Père a son Fils”; and Documentos being taken in its primitive sense of instructions. The spirit of his father seems to speak in Sancho, when he says of kings, “que han de governar regnos e gentes con ayuda de çientificos sabios.”
[91] Argote de Molina, Sucesion de los Manueles, prefixed to the Conde Lucanor, 1575. The date of his birth has been heretofore considered unsettled, but I have found it given exactly by himself in an unpublished letter to his brother, the Archbishop of Toledo, which occurs in a manuscript in the National Library at Madrid, to be noticed hereafter.
[92] In his report of his conversation with King Sancho, when that monarch was on his death-bed, he says, “The King Alfonso and my father in his lifetime, and King Sancho and myself in his lifetime, always had our households together, and our officers were always the same.” Farther on, he says he was brought up by Don Sancho, who gave him the means of building the castle of Peñafiel, and calls God to witness that he was always true and loyal to Sancho, to Fernando, and to Alfonso XI., adding cautiously, “as far as this last king gave me opportunities to serve him.” Manuscript in the National Library at Madrid.
[93] Crónica de Alfonso XI., ed. 1551, fol., c. 19-21.