XVI. Gentle River, Gentle River.TRANSLATED FROM THE SPANISH. ..........
Although the English are remarkable for the number and variety of their
ancient ballads, and retain perhaps a greater fondness for these old simple rhapsodies
of their ancestors, than most other nations; they are not the only people who have
distinguished themselves by compositions of this kind. The Spaniards have great
multitudes of them, many of which are of the highest merit. They call them in their
languageRomances, and have collected them into volumes under the titles ofEl
Romancero, El Cancionero,[1] &c. Most of them relate to their conflicts with the
Moors, and display a spirit of gallantry peculiar to that romantic people. But, of all the
Spanish ballads, none exceed in poetical merit those inserted in a little Spanish
History of theCivil Wars of Granada, describing the dissensions which raged in that
last seat of Moorish empire before it was conquered in the reign of Ferdinand and
Isabella, in 1491. In this history (or perhaps romance) a great number of heroic songs
are inserted, and appealed to as authentic vouchers for the truth of facts. In reality, the
prose narrative seems to be drawn up for no other end, but to introduce and illustrate
those beautiful pieces.
The Spanish editor pretends (how truly I know not) that they are translations
from the Arabic or Morisco language. Indeed, from the plain unadorned nature of the
verse, and the native simplicity of the language and sentiment, which runs through
these poems, one would judge them to be composed soon after the conquest of
Granada above mentioned; as the prose narrative in which they were inserted was
published about a century after. It should seem, at least, that they were written before
the Castilians had formed themselves so generally, as they have done since, on the
model of the Tuscan poets, or had imported from Italy that fondness for conceit and
refinement, which has for near two centuries past so much infected the Spanish
poetry, and rendered it so frequently affected and obscure.
As a specimen of the ancient Spanish manner, which very much resembles
that of our old English bards and minstrels, the reader is desired candidly to accept the
two following poems. They are given from a small collection of pieces of this kind,
which the Editor some years ago translated for his amusement when he was studying
the Spanish language. As the first is a pretty close translation, to gratify the curious it
is accompanied with the original. The metre is the same in all these old Spanish
ballads: it is of the most simple construction, and is still used by the common people
in their extemporaneous songs, as we learn from Baretti's Travels. It runs in short
stanzas of four lines, of which the second and fourth line alone correspond in their
terminations; and in these it is only required that the vowels should be alike, the
consonants may be altogether different, as
pone casa meten areco
noble canas muere gamoYet has this kind of verse a sort of simple harmonious flow, which atones for the
imperfect nature of the rhyme, and renders it not unpleasing to the ear. The same flow
of numbers has been studied in the following versions. The first of them is given from
two different originals, both of which are printed in theHist. de las civiles guerras de
Granada, Madrid, 1694. One of them hath the rhymes ending inaa, the other inia. It