But forced for a season a false Moor’s slave to be,
Upon the shore his gardener, and his galley-slave at sea.
We have already recounted the tale of the Count Alarcos, and with it Lockhart’s collection comes to an end.
But it is not in the pages of Lockhart alone that we should look for good translations of the Spanish romanceros. John Bowring in his Ancient Poetry and Romances of Spain (1824) has undoubtedly done much to render some of the lesser lyrics of Castilian balladeers into successful English verse. His translation of the celebrated “Fonte Frida” is, perhaps, the best version of that much-discussed poem to be met with in our language. It is clear that Ticknor’s rendition of this piece is practically a paraphrase of Bowring’s translation, of which I give the first two verses:
Fount of freshness, fount of freshness,
Fount of freshness and of love,
Where the little birds of spring-time
Seek for comfort as they rove;
All except the widow’d turtle,
Widow’d, sorrowing turtle-dove.