chamarei ora por mi.
Deus meus, eli, eli,
eli lama sabac thani.
And shortly after the death of Macias another literary force came into play. As Professor Henry R. Lang observes in a note to his invaluable Cancioneiro gallego-castelhano, ‘the Italian Renaissance had taught the poet to combine myth and miracle and to pay homage to the fair lady in the language of religion as well as in that of feudal life.’ The conventions of chivalry were combined with the expressions of sacrilegious passion. So eminent a man as Álvaro de Luna set a lamentable example of impious preciosity. In one of his extant poems he belauds his mistress, declares that the Saviour’s choice would light on her if He were subject to mortal passions, and defiantly announces his readiness to contend with God in the lists—to break a lance with the Almighty—for so incomparable a prize:—
Aun se m’antoxa, Senyor,
si esta tema tomáras
que justar e quebrar varas
fiçieras per el su amor.
Si fueras mantenedor,