[521] “E per ço començ al feyt del dit senyor, Rey En Jacme, com yol viu, e asenyaladament essent yo fadrí, e lo dit senyor Rey essent á la dita vila de Peralada hon yo naxqui, e posa en lalberch de mon pare En Joan Muntaner, qui era dels majors alberchs daquell lloch, e era al cap de la plaça,” (Cap. II.,)—“And therefore I begin with the fact of the said Lord Don James, as I saw him, and namely, when I was a little boy and the said Lord King was in the said city of Peralada, where I was born, and tarried in the house of my father, Don John Muntaner, which was one of the largest houses in that place, and was at the head of the square.” En, which I have translated Don, is the corresponding title in Catalan. See Andrev Bosch, Titols de Honor de Cathalunya, etc., Perpinya, folio, 1628, p. 574.
[522] This passage reminds us of the beautiful character of Sir Launcelot, near the end of the “Morte Darthur,” and therefore I transcribe the simple and strong words of the original: “E apres ques vae le pus bell princep del mon, e lo pus savi, e lo pus gracios, e lo pus dreturer, e cell qui fo mes amat de totes gents, axi dels seus sotsmesos com daltres estranys e privades gents, que Rey qui hanch fos.” Cap. VII.
[523] This poem is in Cap. CCLXXII. of the Chronicle, and consists of twelve stanzas, each of twenty lines, and each having all its twenty lines in one rhyme, the first rhyme being in o, the second in ent, the third in ayle, and so on. It sets forth the counsel of Muntaner to the king and prince on the subject of the conquest they had projected; counsel which the chronicler says was partly followed, and so the expedition turned out well, but that it would have turned out better, if the advice had been followed entirely. How good Muntaner’s counsel was we cannot now judge, but his poetry is certainly naught. It is in the most artificial style used by the Troubadours, and is well called by its author a sermo. He says, however, that it was actually given to the king.
[524] Raynouard, in Tom. III., shows this; and more fully in Tom. V., in the list of poets. So does the Hist. Litt. de la France, Tom. XVIII. See, also, Fauriel’s Introduction to the poem on the Crusade against the Albigenses, pp. xv., xvi.
[525] Castro, Biblioteca Española, Tom. I. p. 411, and Schmidt, Gesch. Aragoniens im Mittelalter, p. 465.
[526] Latassa, Bib. Antigua de los Escritores Aragoneses, Tom. I. p. 242. Hist. Litt. de la France, Tom. XX. p. 529.
[527] Antonio, Bib. Vetus, ed. Bayer, Tom. II. Lib. VIII. c. vi., vii., and Amat, p. 207. But Serveri of Girona, about 1277, mourns the good old days of James I., (Hist. Litt. de la France, Tom. XX. p. 552,) as if poets were, when he wrote, beginning to fail at the court of Aragon.
[528] Muntaner, Crónica, ed. 1562, fol., ff. 247, 248.
[529] Du Cange, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis, Parisiis, 1733, fol., Tom. I., Præfatio, sect. 34-36. Raynouard (Troub., Tom. I. pp. xii. and xiii.) would carry back both the Catalonian and Valencian dialects to A. D. 728; but the authority of Luitprand, on which he relies, is not sufficient, especially as Luitprand shows that he believed these dialects to have existed also in the time of Strabo. The most that should be inferred from the passage Raynouard cites is, that they existed about 950, when Luitprand wrote, which it is not improbable they did, though only in their rudest elements, among the Christians in that part of Spain. Some good remarks on the connection of the South of France with the South of Spain, and their common idiom, may be found in Capmany, Memorias Históricas de Barcelona, (Madrid, 1779-92, 4to,) Parte I., Introd., and the notes on it. The second and fourth volumes of this valuable historical work furnish many documents both curious and important for the illustration of the Catalan language.
[530] Millot, Hist. des Troubadours, Tom. II. pp. 186-201. Hist. Litt. de la France, Tom. XVIII. pp. 588, 634, 635. Diez, Troubadours, pp. 75, 227, and 331-350; but it may be doubted whether Riquier did not write the answer of Alfonso, as well as the petition to him given by Diez.