NOTES

POESÍAS DE LOS SIGLOS XIII-XV

The following equations—the first element being Old Spanish and the second modern—may facilitate the reading of the 13th and 14th century texts:

b = b and v; ç = c (before e, i), and z (before a, o, u); e = e and y; initial f = f and h; i = i, j, g (before e, i), y; l = l and ll; ll = l and ll; mn = mbr; nn = ñ and n; ny = ñ; nb = mb; np = mp; pl (initial) = ll; rr = r and rr; ss = s; final t = d; u = u, b, v; v = b, v, u; x = x and j; y = i and y; z = z and c (before e, i). Initial h may be suppressed; h (trihunfo) and y (peyor) may intervene between vowels. For modern Spanish equivalents of the more difficult Old Spanish words see the [Glosario].

[AVENTURA AMOROSA]. This anonymous poem, first published by M. Morel-Fatio (Romania, XVIII), is by him attributed to the thirteenth century. It is, therefore, one of the oldest Spanish lyrics extant. In the manuscript it is followed, or continued, by another poem, a Debate between Wine and Water. By reason of its subject, M. Morel-Fatio entitled our piece a Poème d’Amour; the present title is the one which it bears in Menéndez y Pelayo’s Antología de poetas líricos castellanos, vol. I. In the manuscript occurs the statement: “Lupus me feçit de Moros”; but this Lupus de Moros may have been only the scribe. The manner of the poem is that of the French and Provençal pastourelles, pastorelas, whose octosyllabic metre is also imitated, somewhat irregularly, by the Spanish poet. Some of the metrical irregularities may be scribal only.