(3) Quando el señor | es en neçessidad... (Str. 258)

The initial unstressed syllable of the first hemistich is lacking in approximately one-third of the lines of the Laberinto. These lines resemble the 11-syllable gaita gallega verse, and the others resemble the popular Galician 12-syllable ternary line, for in both the final unstressed syllable of the first hemistich may fall,[40] which seems to indicate that the appearance of the arte mayor verse in Castilian was due to Galician influence.

Footnote 40:[ (return) ]

Cf. these Galician muiñeiras, cited by Milá y Fontanals (Romanía, VI, p. 47 f.):

Càndo te vèxo | na bèira do rìo,

Quèda o meu còrpo | tembràndo de frìo;

Càndo te vèxo | d'o mònte n'altùra,

A tòdo o mon córpo | lle dà calentùra.

Ìsca d'ahì | galìña maldìta,

Ìsca d'ahì | non me màte la pìta;

Ìsca d'ahì | galìña ladròna,

Ìsca d'ahì | pra càs de tua dòna.

Again, as in many Galician songs of this type, the ternary movement of the old arte mayor verse is not strictly regular. Approximately nine-tenths of the lines in the Laberinto may be read with regular ternary movement:

(-) [/-] - - [/-] (-) | (-) [/-] - - [/-] (-),

by giving a rhythmic accent to a syllable with secondary stress or to a middle syllable in a group of atonics, in a not inconsiderable number of lines, as in:

Pòr las altùras, | collàdos y cèrros...

Assì que tu ères | la gòvernadòra...

In the remaining lines the commonest movement is: