l. 19. de cansado, from weariness.
l. 26. velle, i.e., verle.—mancilla, pity.
[Page 114].—l. 10. Bernardo del Carpio: Largely a fictitious figure invented in Spain to take the place of the Roland of French 365 epic poetry, when the latter became known in the Spanish peninsula. Bernardo is represented as the illegitimate son of a Conde de Saldaña and the sister of Alfonso el Casto, king of Asturias. Now grown up and a doughty warrior who has triumphed over the king’s French enemies, Bernardo demands the release of his father, imprisoned all these years by the king. The king requires certain concessions of Bernardo, and then orders the release of the count. The latter has died in the meantime, and Alfonso delivers over only the dead body. Cf. Milá y Fontanals, De la poesía heroico-popular, pp. 130 ff.
[Page 115].—l. 25. Note the change from asonantes to rhymed octaves, indicating a certainly late origin for this part of the ballad.
[Page 116].—l. 6. Lockhart, l. c., has a version of this romance.
l. 7. A ballad dealing with an episode of the second part of the tragic history of the seven Infantes (nobles) of Lara (cf. Menéndez-Pidal, La leyenda de los Infantes de Lara). At the instance of their aunt, Doña Lambra, and through the treachery of their uncle, Don Rodrigo, the Infantes are delivered into the hands of the Saracens, who slay them. Their father Gonzalo Gustioz (Gustos) had previously been betrayed into the hands of the Moors by the same Don Rodrigo. After some years, Gonzalo is released and returns to Lara, whither he is later followed by his illegitimate half-Moorish son, Mudarra, who is to take vengeance for the death of his half-brothers and the injury done to his father. There is a modern poetical version of the story of Mudarra (El Moro expósito) by the Duke of Rivas (cf. [p. 258]). Cf. Lockhart’s translation: “To the chase goes Rodrigo with hound and with hawk.”
[Page 117].—l. 22. A considerable number of the ballads deal with the story of the greatest of the old Spanish heroes, Rodrigo Diaz de Bivar, El Cid († 1099). The present one is interesting as giving a picture of a wedding in high life in the fifteenth or the sixteenth century. Cf. the translation of Lockhart, l. c., p. 48.
l. 25. afijados, i.e., ahijados.
l. 27. Laín Calvo: the Cid’s father.
[Page 118].—l. 3. polido, i.e., pulido.