[238] Ibid., Cap. 10, with the ballad made out of it, beginning “Reynando el Rey Alfonso.”
[239] Ibid., Capp. 11 and 19. A drama by Rodrigo de Herrera, entitled “Voto de Santiago y Batalla de Clavijo,” (Comedias Escogidas, Tom. XXXIII., 1670, 4to,) is founded on the first of these passages, but has not used its good material with much skill.
[240] The separate history of the Cid begins with the beginning of Part Fourth, f. 279, and ends on f. 346, ed. 1541.
[241] These Cantares and Cantares de Gesta are referred to in Parte III. c. 10 and 13.
[242] I cannot help feeling, as I read it, that the beautiful story of the Infantes de Lara, as told in this Third Part of the Crónica de España, beginning f. 261 of the edition of 1541, is from a separate and older chronicle; probably from some old monkish Latin legend. But it can be traced no farther back than to this passage in the Crónica de España, on which rests every thing relating to the Children of Lara in Spanish poetry and romance.
[243] “La Pérdida de España” is the common name, in the older writers, for the Moorish conquest.
[244] “Los Bienes que tiene España” (ed. 1541, f. 202);—and, on the other side of the leaf, the passage that follows, called “El Llanto de España.”
[245] The original, in both the printed editions, is tierras, though it should plainly be sierras from the context; but this is noticed as only one of the thousand gross typographical errors with which these editions are deformed.
[246] This remark will apply to many passages in the Third Part of the Chronicle of Spain, but to none, perhaps, so strikingly as to the stories of Bernardo del Carpio and the Infantes de Lara, large portions of which may be found almost verbatim in the ballads. I will now refer only to the following:—1. On Bernardo del Carpio, the ballads beginning, “El Conde Don Sancho Diaz,” “En corte del Casto Alfonso,” “Estando en paz y sosiego,” “Andados treinta y seis años,” and “En gran pesar y tristeza.” 2. On the Infantes de Lara, the ballads beginning, “A Calatrava la Vieja,” which was evidently arranged for singing at a puppet-show or some such exhibition, “Llegados son los Infantes,” “Quien es aquel caballero,” and “Ruy Velasquez de Lara.” All these are found in the older collections of ballads; those, I mean, printed before 1560; and it is worthy of particular notice, that this same General Chronicle makes especial mention of Cantares de Gesta about Bernardo del Carpio that were known and popular when it was itself compiled, in the thirteenth century.
[247] See the Crónica General de España, ed. 1541, f. 227, a.