definitions in verse, were then esteemed great beauties; and the gothic and fantastic hyperboles in praise of king John, with which the poem opens, as if intended to appal the reader at the outset, were not at that period considered unpoetic.97
But king John was not satisfied with the torrent of praise which was poured upon him by Mena’s Labyrinth. The king, with critical gravity, signified his wish that the poet should add sixty-five stanzas to the three hundred which he had already written, so that by making the number of stanzas correspond with the number of days in the year, the beauty of the composition might be heightened. The sixty-five new stanzas were also to have a political tendency, with the view of recalling the rebellious nobles to their allegiance. Juan de Mena proceeded to the prescribed task; but he could produce no more than twenty-four additional stanzas (coplas añadidas.) They are contained in the Cancionero general.
Another work of Juan de Mena, very celebrated at the period when the poet flourished, is his Ode for the Poetical Coronation of the Marquis of Santillana.98 That Mecænas sometimes vied with him in the composition of ingenious questions, or enigmas and their answers, which were versified by both in dactylic stanzas.99 His other poems are, for the most part, love songs, in the style of the age, and according to the perverted taste of the poet, loaded with mythological learning. In the course of this work further notice will be taken of these songs, together with other amatory poems of the same period. During the last year of his life, Juan de Mena was engaged in a moral allegorical poem, which, however, he did not complete. It was entitled a Treatise on Vices and Virtues, (Tractado de Vicios y Virtudes.) The author intended in an epic poem to represent the “more than civil war,” which the will, instigated by the passions, maintains with reason.100 The will and reason are in the end personified.
To collect biographical notices of the other poets and writers of verse who enjoyed the favour of king John II. and whose works are partly contained in the Cancionero general, or to give an extensive account of their productions, is a task which must be resigned to the author who has made this department of Spanish literature his particular study. As to poetic value, the writings of all those authors are in the main the same; and it may therefore be presumed that it will prove more instructive to consider works so nearly related to each other, under the comprehensive view of general criticism. A few notices, however, of men worthy of more particular remembrance, may precede the critical comparison of their works.101
PEREZ DE GUZMAN, RODRIGUEZ DEL PADRON, AND OTHER SPANISH LYRIC POETS OF THE AGE OF JOHN II.
Fernan Perez de Guzman was held in no trifling consideration at the court of John II. His family, which was one of the most distinguished in Castile, was related to all the other great families in the country. As a poet, he studied to combine the peculiar tone of moral and spiritual poetry with that of the old romances. His Representation of the Four Cardinal Virtues, dedicated to the Marquis of Santillana, which consists of sixty-four strophes or couplets, is versified in redondillas, as are also his Ave Maria, his Paternoster, and his other spiritual songs.
Rodriguez del Padron seems likewise to have been held in some esteem at the court of John II. His family name is not known, and as little are the dates of his birth and death, but he is named after the place of his nativity, the little town El Padron in Galicia. It is remarkable that in his poetry he dropped his Galician idiom and adopted the Castilian. Besides the reputation he obtained by his poetic productions, which are chiefly love songs, he is celebrated for his friendship with the Galician poet Macias, who will be further mentioned in the history of Portuguese poetry. The tragical death of Macias, who fell a sacrifice to his romantic susceptibility, made such an impression on Rodriguez del Padron, that he shut himself up in a Dominican cloister, which he had erected at his own expense. He became a monk, and terminated his life in that convent.
Alonzo de Santa Maria, called also Alonzo de Cartagena, wrote love songs, probably in his youth, and then devoted himself to spiritual affairs. He died Archbishop of Burgos, in the year 1456.
Several other poets whose works fill the Cancionero general, also lived in the reign, or rather under the anticipated domination of queen Isabella, who, in the year 1465, vouchsafed to her almost dethroned brother, Henry IV. the little authority, which, as a nominal king he retained till his death in 1474. At this troubled period Garci Sanchez de Badajoz sang his passionate and glowing songs of love; and at the same time flourished the two Manriques, Gomez Manrique and Jorge Manrique; the latter was nephew to the former. Both owed the consideration they enjoyed no less to their poetical works than to their high and pure Castilian descent. The Bachelor de la Torre, of whom nothing further is known than what his own songs express, lived at the same period.
OF THE CANCIONERO GENERAL, AND THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF ANCIENT SPANISH SONGS.
Between the works of the above poets, all of which are to be found in the Cancionero general, and the other poems contained in the same collection, whether their authors lived in the first or the second half of the fifteenth century, there is a very striking resemblance. This collection, so remarkable in its kind, may therefore be regarded as a single work, which, together with a portion of the General Romance Book (Romancero general), embraces nearly all the Castilian poetry of the fifteenth century. No other remains of Spanish poetry, belonging to the same age, are sufficiently important to be brought into comparison with this national treasure. It may not, then, be improper to introduce here, a few particulars respecting the history of the Cancionero general. Of the Romancero general some further account must hereafter be given.
The bibliographic notices towards the history of the collections of Spanish poetry, to be found in the works of various authors, readily explain why many old Spanish poems and names of poets have been either totally lost, or are still only preserved in manuscript in a way which renders them foreign to literature. It appears that having been withheld from the press, on the introduction of printing into Spain,102 they were forgotten as soon as other collections were made known by means of that art. In the reign of John II. Alphonso de Baena, who himself wrote in verse, prepared a collection of old lyric pieces, under the title of Cancionero de Poetas Antiguos. This collection, though still preserved in the library of the Escurial, was never printed;103 but a list of the poets whose works are contained in it, has appeared, and includes names which do not occur elsewhere. Alvarez de Villapandino is mentioned as a particularly excellent “master and patron of the said art,” namely, poetry. Sanchez Salavera, Ruy Paez de Ribera, and others, of whom besides their names, nothing else is known, are also cited. It is not very probable that Alphonso de Baena’s collection was the origin of that which subsequently appeared under the title of the Cancionero general. Of this celebrated collection it is merely known that it was originally produced by Fernando del Castillo, at the commencement of the sixteenth century, and within a short period frequently augmented and reprinted. Fernando del Castillo began his collection with the poets of the age of John II. He did not, however, take the trouble to carry on the series in chronological order through the fifteenth century. He places the spiritual poems before the rest. He then gives the works of several poets of the reign of John II. mingled with others of more recent date, but so arranged, that the productions of each author seem to be kept distinct. After, however, the works are thus apparently given, other poems follow under particular heads, partly by the same and partly by different authors, whose names are sometimes mentioned and sometimes not: there are also a few Italian sonnets, and some coplas in the Valencian language. In proportion as the collection extended, the additions were always inserted at the end of the book. In the oldest editions the number of poets mentioned amounts to one hundred and thirty-six.104
A nation which can enumerate one hundred and thirty-six song writers in a single century, and which also possesses a great number of songs by unknown authors, produced within the same period, may well boast of its lyric genius; and the literary historian, before he proceeds to