Portuguese literature
the throne of Portugal. Plentifully educated by a Frenchman, Ayméric
d’Ébrard, afterwards Bishop of Coimbra, married to a foreign princess,
Isabel of Aragon (the Queen-Saint of Portugal), profoundly impressed,
no doubt, by the world-fame of Alfonso X, to whom he was sent on a
diplomatic mission when not yet in his teens, he became nevertheless
one of the most national of kings. If he imitated Alfonso X in his love
of literature, he showed himself a far abler and firmer sovereign,
being more like a rock than like the sea, to which the poet compared
Alfonso. Far-sighted in the conception of his plans and vigorous in
their execution, the _Rei Lavrador_, whom Dante mentions, though not
by name: _quel di Portogallo_ (_Paradiso_ xix), fostered agriculture,
increased his navy, planted pine-forests, fortified his towns, built
castles and convents and churches, and legislated for the safety of the
roads and for the general welfare and security of his people. Among his
great and abiding services to his country was the foundation of the
first Portuguese University in the year 1290, and in the same spirit
he ordered the translation of many notable books from the Spanish,
Latin, and Arabic into Portuguese prose, including the celebrated
works of the Learned King, so that it is truer of prose than of poetry
to say that he inaugurated a golden age.[96] Had he written no line
of verse his name must have been for ever honoured in Portugal as
the real founder of that imperishable glory which was fulfilled two
centuries later. But he also excelled as a poet, _d’amor trobador_. It
had no doubt been part of his education to write conventionally in the
Provençal manner, but his skill in versification, remarkable even in
an age in which Portuguese poetry had attained exceptional proficiency
in technique, would have availed him, or at least us, little had he
not also possessed an instinct for popular themes, perhaps directly
encouraged by Alfonso X. The _Declaratio_ placed by Guiraut Riquier of
Narbonne on the lips of that king in 1275 marked the coming asphyxia of
Provençal poetry, for it showed the tendency to take the _jogral_[97]
away from tavern and open air and to cut off his poetry from the life
of the people. It was owing to the personal encouragement of Dinis that
the waning star of both Provençal and indigenous poetry continued to
shine in Portugal for another half-century. The grandson of Alfonso X
was the last hope of the _trobadores_ and _jograes_ of the Peninsula.
From Leon and Castille and Aragon they came to reap an aftermath of
song and _panos_ at his Court, and after his death remained silent or
unpaid (C. V. 708). The poems of King Dinis are not only more numerous
but far more various than those of any other _trobador_, with the
exception of Alfonso X, and it may perhaps be doubted whether they are
all the work of his own hand. In poetry’s old age he might well wish to
collect specimens of various kinds for his _Livro de Trovas_. But many
of the 138 poems[98] that we possess under his name are undoubtedly
his, and display a characteristic force and sincerity as well as true
poetic delicacy and power. Among them are some colourless _cantigas
de amor_ and others more individual in tone, _pastorelas_ (C. V. 102,
137, 150), _cantigas de amigo_ (more Provençal than Portuguese in their
spirit of vigorous reproach are C. V. 186: _Amigo fals’ e desleal_,
and C. V, 198: _Ai fals’ amigo e sen lealdade_), a jingle worthy of
the _Cantigas de Santa Maria_ (C. V. 136), a poem in 8.8.4.8 metre
(C. V. 131), _atafiindas_ (e. g. C. V. 130), a _mordobre_ in _querer_
(C. V. 113, _Quix ben, amigos, e quer’ e querrei Ũa molher que me
quis e quer mal E querrá_), and _cossantes_ of an unmistakably popular
flavour: _Ay flores, ay flores do verde pino_ (C. V. 171), two _albas_
(C. V. 170, 172), C. V. 168, 169, with their refrains _louçana_ and
_ai madre, moiro d’amor_, C. V. 173 with its quaint charm: _Vede-la
frol do pinho--Valha Deus_, and the _bailada-cossante_ (C. V. 195: _Mia
madre velida, Voum’ a la bailia Do amor_). If the king wrote these
_cossantes_ he must be reckoned not only as a musical and skilful
versifier but as a great poet. And certainly, at least, his _graciosas
e dulces palavras_ well earned him the reputation of being not only the
best king but the best poet of his time in the Peninsula.
It would seem that, unlike his grandfather, who had begun with
profane and ended with religious verse, King Dinis, no doubt at his
grandfather’s bidding, who would be delighted to find a disciple
(_Dized’, ai trobadores, A Sennor das Sennores Por que a non loades?_),
began writing songs in honour of the Virgin and sent them to the
Castilian king. His book of _Louvores da Virgem Nossa Senhora_ is said
to have been seen in the Escorial Library and in the Lisbon Torre do
Tombo, and it is impossible altogether to set aside the statements
of Duarte Nunez de Leam[99] and Antonio de Sousa de Macedo, who says
that he read religious poems by King Dinis at the Escorial.[100] On
the other hand, it must be remembered that it was the common opinion
that King Dinis had been the first to write Portuguese poetry, and
the temptation to attribute ancient poems to him would be strong. The
possibility of confusion with the _Livro de Cantigas_ of Alfonso X
(to which his grandson may well have contributed poems)[101] is also
obvious. But the statement of Sousa de Macedo, who was no passing
traveller in a hurry, and who had wide experience of books and
libraries,[102] is very precise. No trace or
memory of the existence of this manuscript exists, however, at
the Escorial Library, nor is to be found in the _Catálogo de los
Manuscritos existentes antes del incendio de 1671_. The subjects of
King Dinis’ ten[103] satirical poems are trivial, but he had too much
force of character to descend to such vilenesses as were common among
_profaçadores_. (His concise definition of a bore: _falou muit’ e mal_
(C. C. B. 411) is worthy of Afonso de Albuquerque.) Of his illegitimate
sons, besides D. Afonso Sanchez, D. Pedro, Conde de Barcellos, long had
a reputation as a poet almost equal to that of his father, owing to the
association of his name with the _Cancioneiro_; but of his ten poems
six (C. V. 1037-42) are satirical, and the four _cantigas de amor_ (C.
V. 210-13) are perhaps the heaviest and most prosaic in the collection.
It was as a prose-writer and editor of the _Livro de Linhagens_ that he
worthily carried on the literary tradition of King Dinis.
FOOTNOTES:
[68] Antonio de Vasconcellos, _Anacephalaeoses, id est Svmma Capita
Actorum Regum Lusitaniae_ (Antverpiae, 1621), p. 79.
[69] See also C. V. B., pp. xcv-vi.
[70] An English Crusader writing from Lisbon speaks of _inter hos tot
linguarum populos_ (_Crucesignati Anglici Epistola de Expugnatione
Olisiponis_, A.D. 1147).
[71] _Colección de Poesías Castellanas_ (1779), vol. i, p. lvii. The
important passages of Santillana’s letter have been so often quoted
that the reader may be referred to them, e.g. in the _Grundriss_, p.
168.
[72] Milá y Fontanals (_De los Trobadores_, p. 522) lays much stress on
the resemblance between Galician and Provençal.
[73] It must be remembered that in the early thirteenth century (1213)
the range of the Galician-Portuguese lyric already extended to Navarre
(C. V. 937).
[74] Guiraut Riquier and Nat de Mons placed Provençal poems on his
lips, which may be taken as an indication that he also wrote in
Provençal. As proof that he wrote poems in Castilian we have a single
_cantiga_ of eight lines (C. C. B. 363: _Señora por amor dios_). The
other poem of the _Cancioneiros_ in Castilian (with traces of Galician)
is by the victor of Salado, Alfonso XI (1312-50), King of Castille and
Leon: _En un tiempo cogi flores_ (C. V. 209).
[75] Their antiquarian interest was recognized over three centuries
ago. Cf. Argote de Molina, _Nobleza de Andalvzia_ (Seuilla, 1588), f.
151 v.: _es un libro de mucha curiosidad assi por la poesia como por
los trages de aquella edad ̃q se veen en sus pinturas_.
[76] Some of King Alfonso’s _Cantigas_ were recited in the same way. C.
M. 172 implies this in the lines:
Et d’esto cantar fezemos
Que cantassen os iograres
And of this we made a song for the _joglares_ to sing.
[77] Their popular origin is borne out by the music. See H. Collet et
L. Villalba, _Contribution à l’étude des Cantigas_ (1911). Cf. also P.
Meyer, _Types de quelques chansons de Gautier de Coinci_ (_Romania_,
vol. xvii (1888), pp. 429-37): _paroles pieuses à des mélodies
profanes_.
[78] Padre Nobrega came upon a crowd of _pobres pedintes peregrinos_ at
Santiago feasting merrily and having _grandes contendas entre si_ as to
which of them was cleverest at taking people in. The trick of one of
them was to declare that, being captive in Turkey, _encommendando-me
muito á Senhora ... achei-me ao outro dia ao romper da alva em terra
de Christãos_ (Simão de Vasconcellos, _Cronica_, Lib. I, § 22). Cf.
Jeronymo de Mendoça, _Jornada de Africa_, 1904 ed., ii. 34, and Frei
Luis de Sousa, _Hist. de S. Domingos_, I. i. 5.
[79] i. e. besides the Spanish _cantiga_ (C. C. B. 363), C. C. B. 359,
which belongs to the _Cantigas de Santa Maria_, and C. C. B. 372, which
consists of a single line.
[80] _El Rei aia tres jograes en sa casa e non mais._
[81] Riquier’s _segriers per totas cortz_ (King Alfonso X (C. M. 194)
speaks of a _jograr andando pelas cortes_). See also C. V. 556. The
word probably has no connexion with _seguir_ (to follow). Possibly
it was used originally to differentiate singers of profane songs,
_cantigas profanas e seculares_. Frei João Alvarez in his _Cronica do
Infante Santo_ has ‘obras ecclesiasticas e _segrãaes_’; King Duarte
counted among _os pecados da boca_ ‘cantar cantigas _sagraaes_’, The
_Cancioneiros_ show that the _segrel_ was far less common than the
_jogral_ in the thirteenth century. For _segre_ (= _saeculum_) see
_infra_, p. 93, n. 2.
[82] For instances see H. R. Lang, _The Relations of the Earliest
Portuguese Lyric School with the Troubadours and Trouvères_ (_Modern
Language Notes_ (April, 1895), pp. 207-31), and C. D. L., pp. xlviii et
seq.
[83] This poet, Fernam Gonçalvez de Seabra or Fernant Gonzalez de
Sanabria (C. V. 338; C. C. B. 330-7; C. A. 210-21, 445-7), apparently
obtained some fame by his mystification, unless the object of his
devotion was as high-placed as the Portuguese princess for love of
whom, according to legend, D. Joan Soarez de Paiva died in Galicia.
The latter wrote in the first years of the thirteenth century (C.
V. 937, _Randglosse_ xi). They are the only two Galician-Portuguese
poets--besides King Dinis--mentioned in Santillana’s letter.
[84] _Poetica_, ll. 126, 130. Much of the information of this _Poetica_
(printed in C. C. B.) may be gleaned from the _Cancioneiros_, but it
shows how carefully the different kinds of poem were distinguished.
There were apparently special names for poems to trick and deceive: _de
logr’ e d’arteiro_, and for festive laughter poems: _de risadelha_ (or
_refestela_?) = _de riso e mote_. Santillana’s _mansobre_ is, it seems,
a misprint for _mordobre_. It occurs again in the _Requesta de Ferrant
Manuel contra Alfonso Alvarez_ (_Canc. de Baena_, 1860 ed., i. 253):
Sin lai, sin deslai, sin cor, sin descor.
Sin dobre, mansobre, sensilla o menor.
Sin encadenado, dexar o prender.
[85] e. g. C. V. 300: _Por Deus, se ora, se ora chegasse Con el mui
leda seria._
[86] _q’coi_ (C. V. M.), _qual cór_ (C. V. B.). D. Carolina Michaëlis
de Vasconcellos proposes _quiça_ (cf. C. V. 1006, I. 8).
[87] _Aqueste cantar da egoa que non andou na tregoa_ (C. V. 956).
[88] Or D. Joan Garcia de Guilhade. See C. A. M. V. ii. 407-15.