But the Archpriest’s genial reconstruction outdoes the original at every point. And this is even more emphatically true of Pamphilus de Amore, which also no doubt, like the fableaux and contes, drifted into Spain from France. At moments Juan Ruiz is content to be an admirable translator. Read, for instance, what Pamphilus says to Galatea in the First Act (sc. iv.) of the Latin play—
Alterius villa mea neptis mille salutes
Per me mandavit officiumque tibi:
Hec te cognoscit dictis et nomine tantum,
Et te, si locus est, ipsa videre cupit—
[48]and compare it with Don Melón’s address to Doña Endrina in the Libro de buen amor:—
Señora, la mj sobrina, que en toledo seya,
se vos encomjenda mucho, mjll saludes vos enbya;
sy ovies lugar e tienpo, por quanto de vos oya,
desea vos mucho ver e conosçer vos querria.