[Page 8].—l. 1. velar, the infinitive with imperative force.
l. 4. Dios: as the rhyme shows, this word has the older accent in the first vowel.
[JUAN RUIZ, ARCIPRESTE DE HITA]. Archpriest of Hita, in the vicinity of Guadalajara, Ruiz, the most original Old Spanish poet, wrote during the first half of the fourteenth century. On account of his irregular life, his ecclesiastical superiors found it necessary to imprison him. His whole career reminds one strongly of that of the French cleric François Villon, like whom Ruiz is one of the first modern poets to strike a peculiarly personal note. In his Libro de buen amor (published in the Biblioteca de autores castellanos, volume 57, as Libro de los cantares) he is frankly improper and shows in a marked degree the influence of Ovid’s works, of the Pamphilus de Amore, a mediæval imitation of Ovid, and of various Old French works. The selections here given are taken from the Biblioteca volume already cited; cf. also the edition of the Libro de buen amor by J. Ducamin (Bibliothèque méridionale, 1e série, tome VI).
[Page 9].—l. 22. There is a metrical translation of this poem by Longfellow, first published in The North American Review, April, 1833, and reprinted in the Riverside edition of Longfellow’s works, 1886, vol. VI, pp. 414 ff. Longfellow imitates the cuaderna vía arrangement of the original.
l. 25. Ca ... corazon, for the heart desires but little and that well said.
[Page 10].—l. 8. Mucho ... mientes, much more you will find wherever you direct your attention.
[Page 11].—l. 3. en la salutaçion: cf. Longfellow’s translation in anticipation.
l. 6. tomar, cf. [note p. 8, l. 1].
l. 8. In this song the author abandons the cuaderna vía for the octosyllabic verse. Occasional imperfections of rhyme are noticeable here.
l. 13. Habémoslo a: haber a equivalent to haber de; the lo is used indefinitely.