[7. fuera:] note that fué (or fuera) á pasar = pasó. This usage is now archaic, although it is still sometimes used by modern poets: see [p. 136, l. 18.]
[18. bebía:] see note, p. 2, l. 5.
[19. haber], in the ballads, often = tener. See also haya in the following line.
[4.—El Conde Arnaldos.] Lockhart says of "Count Arnaldos," "I should be inclined to suppose that
'More is meant than meets the ear,'
—that some religious allegory is intended to be shadowed forth." Others have thought the same, and the strong mystic strain in Spanish character may bear out the opinion. In order that the reader may judge for himself he should have before him the mysterious song itself, which, omitted in the earliest version, is thus given in the Cancionero de romances of 1550, to follow line 18 of the poem:
—Galera, la mi galera,
Dios te me guarde de mal,
de los peligros del mundo
sobre aguas de la mar,