Dr. Johnson's opinions are well known, in regard to this department of English literature, which, by his ridiculous parodies, he succeeded for a time in throwing into the shade, or, in the language of his admiring biographer, made "perfectly contemptible."
Petrarch, with like pedantry, rested his hopes of fame on his Latin epic, and gave away his lyrics, as alms to ballad-singers. Posterity, deciding on surer principles of taste, has reversed both these decisions.
[16] "Algunos quieren que sean la cartilla de los Poetas; yo no lo siento assi; antes bien los hallo capaces, no solo de exprimir y declarar qualquier concepto con facil dulzura, pero de prosequir toda grave accion de numeroso Poema. Y soy tan de veras Español, que por ser en nuestro idioma natural este genero, no me puedo persuadir que no sea digno de toda estimacion."(Coleccion de Obras Sueltas, (Madrid, 1776-9,) tom. iv. p. 176, Prólogo.) In another place he finely styles them "Iliads without a Homer."
[17] See, among others, the encomiastic and animated criticism of
Fernandez and Quintana. Fernandez, Poesías Escogidas, de Nuestros
Cancioneros y Romanceros Antiguos, (Madrid, 1796,) tom. xvi., Prólogo.—
Quintana, Poesías Selectas Castellanas, Introd. art. 4.
[18] Nic. Antonio, Bibliotheca Nova, tom. ii. p. 10.—The Spanish translators of Bouterwek have noticed the principal "collections and earliest editions" of the Romances. This original edition of Sepulveda has escaped their notice. See Literatura Española, pp. 217, 218.
[19] See Grimm, Depping, Herder, etc. This last poet has embraced a selection of the Cid ballads, chronologically arranged, and translated with eminent simplicity and spirit, if not with the scrupulous fidelity usually aimed at by the Germans. See his Sämmtliche Werke, (Wien, 1813,) band iii.
[20] Sarmiento, Memorias, pp. 242, 243.—Moratin considers that none have come down to us, in their original costume, of an earlier date than John II.'s reign, the first half of the fifteenth century. (Obras, tom. i. p. 84.) The Spanish translators of Bouterwek transcribe a romance, relating to the Cid, from the fathers Berganza and Merino, purporting to exhibit the primitive, uncorrupted diction of the thirteenth century. Native critics are of course the only ones competent to questions of this sort; but, to the less experienced eye of a foreigner, the style of this ballad would seem to resemble much less that genuine specimen of the versification of the preceding age, the poem of the Cid, than the compositions of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
[21] The principle of philosophical arrangement, if it may so be called, is pursued still further in the latest Spanish publications of the romances, where the Moorish minstrelsy is embodied in a separate volume, and distributed with reference to its topics. This system is the more practicable with this class of ballads, since it far exceeds in number any other. See Duran, Romancero de Romances Moriscos.
The Romancero I have used is the ancient edition of Medina del Campo, 1602. It is divided into nine parts, though it is not easy to see on what principle, since the productions of most opposite date and tenor are brought into juxtaposition. The collection contains nearly a thousand ballads, which, however, fall far short of the entire number preserved, as may easily be seen by reference to other compilations. When to this is added the consideration of the large number which insensibly glided into oblivion without ever coming to the press, one may form a notion of the immense mass of these humble lyrics, which floated among the common people of Spain; and we shall be the less disposed to wonder at the proud and chivalrous bearing that marks even the peasantry of a nation, which seems to breathe the very air of romantic song.
[22] The title of this work was "Coplas de Vita Christi, de la Cena con la Pasion, y de la Veronica con la Resurreccion de nuestro Redemtor. E las siete Angustias e siete Gozos de nuestra Señora, con otras obras mucho provechosas." It concludes with the following notice, "Fue la presente obra emprentada en la insigne Ciudad de Zaragoza de Aragon por industria e expensas de Paulo Hurus de Constancia aleman. A 27 dias de Noviembre, 1492." (Mendez, Typographia Española, pp. 134, 136.) It appears there were two or three other cancioneros compiled, none of which, however, were admitted to the honors of the press. (Bouterwek, Literatura Española, nota.) The learned Castro, some fifty years since, published an analysis with copious extracts from one of these made by Baena, the Jewish physician of John II., a copy of which existed in the royal library of the Escurial. Bibliotheca Española, tom. i. p. 265 et seq.