I do not remember it; but it is as bad as some of the worst verses of the same sort for which Ronsard has been ridiculed. It should be observed, however, that, in the earliest periods of the Castilian language, there was a greater connection with the French than there was in the time of Juan de Mena. Thus, in the “Poem of the Cid,” we have cuer for heart, tiesta for head, etc.; in Berceo, we have asemblar, to meet; sopear, to sup, etc. (See Don Quixote, ed. Clemencin, 1835, Tom. IV. p. 56.) If, therefore, we find a few French words in Juan de Mena that are no longer used, like sage, which he makes a dissyllable guttural to rhyme with viage in Copla 167, we may presume he found them already in the language, from which they have since been dropped. But Juan de Mena was, in all respects, too bold; and, as the learned Sarmiento says of him in a manuscript which I possess, “Many of his words are not at all Castilian, and were never used either before his time or after it.”
[660] The accounts of Villasandino are found in Antonio, Bib. Vetus, ed. Bayer, Tom. II. p. 341; and Sanchez, Poesías Anteriores, Tom. I. pp. 200, etc. His earlier poems are in the Academy’s edition of the Chronicles of Ayala, Tom. II. pp. 604, 615, 621, 626, 646; but the mass of his works as yet printed is in the Cancionero of Baena, extracted by Castro, Biblioteca Española, Tom. I. pp. 268-296, etc.
[661] Sanchez, Tom. I. p. lx.
[662] The Hymn in question is in Castro, Tom. I. p. 269; but, as a specimen of Villasandino’s easiest manner, I prefer the following verses, which he wrote for Count Pero Niño, to be given to the Lady Beatrice, of whom, as was noticed when speaking of his Chronicle, the Count was enamoured:—
La que siempre obedecí,
E obedezco todavia,
Mal pecado, solo un dia
Non se le membra de mi.
Perdí
Meu tempo en servir