Portuguese literature
to be described in greater detail than, for example, Gil Vicente’s
vague _branca e colorada_, and the reverence might be transferred
unconsciously to poems addressed to an earthly _dona_. (Only in the
extravagant devotional mannerisms (_gongorismo ao divino_) of the
seventeenth century could Soror Violante do Ceo describe Christ as a
_galan de ojos verdes_.) _Dona genser qu’ieu no sai dir_ or _la genser
que sia_ says Arnaut de Marueil at the end of the thirteenth century.
The Portuguese poet would make an end there: his lady is fairest among
women, fairer than he can say. He would never go on to describe her
grey eyes and snowy brow: _huelhs vairs_ and _fron pus blanc que lis_.
But introduced into alien and artificial forms, like mountain gentians
in a garden, the monotony can no longer please. In the _cantigas de
amor_ the iteration becomes a tedious sluggishness of thought, whereas
in the _cossantes_ it is part of the music of the poem.
C. A. = Cancioneiro da Ajuda.
C. A. M. V. = Cancioneiro da Ajuda. Ed. Carolina Michaëlis de
Vasconcellos. 2 vols. Halle, 1904.
C. A. S.= Fragmentos de hum Cancioneiro Inedito que se acha na
Livraria do Real Collegio dos Nobres de Lisboa. Impresso á custa de
Carlos Stuart, Socio da Academia Real de Lisboa. Paris, 1823.
C. A. V. = Trovas e Cantares de um Codice do XIV Seculo. Ed. Francisco
Adolpho de Varnhagen. Madrid, 1849.
C. V. = Cancioneiro da Vaticana.
C. V. M. = Il Canzoniere Portoghese della Biblioteca Vaticana. Ed.
Ernesto Monaci. Halle, 1875.
C. V. B. = Cancioneiro Portuguez da Vaticana. Ed. Theophilo Braga.
Lisboa, 1878.
C. T. A. = Cancioneirinho das Trovas Antigas colligidas de um grande
Cancioneiro da Bibliotheca do Vaticano. Ed. F. A. de Varnhagen. Vienna
(1870), 2nd ed. 1872.
C. A. P. = Cantichi Antichi Portoghesi tratti dal Codice Vaticano 4803
con traduzione e note, a cura di Ernesto Monaci. Imola, 1873.
C. L. = Cantos de Ledino tratti dal grande Canzoniere portoghese della
Biblioteca Vaticana. Ed. E. Monaci. Halle, 1875.
C. D. M. = Cancioneiro d’ El Rei D. Diniz, pela primeira vez impresso
sobre o manuscripto da Vaticana. Ed. Caetano Lopes de Moura. Paris,
1847.
C. D. L. = Das Liederbuch des Königs Denis von Portugal. Ed. Henry R.
Lang. Halle, 1894.
C. C. B. = Il Canzoniere Portoghese Colocci-Brancuti. Ed. Enrico
Molteni. Halle, 1880.
C. M. = Cantigas de Santa Maria de Don Alfonso el Sabio. 2 vols.
Madrid, 1889.
C. G. C. = Cancioneiro Gallego-Castelhano. Ed. H. R. Lang. Vol. i. New
York, London, 1902.
C. M. B. = Cancionero Musical de los Siglos XV y XVI. Transcrito y
comentado por Francisco Asenjo Barbieri. Madrid (1890).
C. B. = Cancionero de Juan Alfonso de Baena. Madrid, 1851.
C. G. = Cancionero General (1511).
C. R. = Cancioneiro de Resende. Lisboa, 1516 (= Cancioneiro Geral).
FOOTNOTES:
[30] Kazwînî ap. Reinhart Dozy, _Spanish Islam_, trans. F. G. Stokes,
London, 1913, p. 663.
[31] C. A. 38. It is a _cantiga de meestria_, of two verses, each of
eight octosyllabic lines (_abbaccde bfbaccde_).
[32] Although neither English nor Portuguese, it is a name for these
poems, of lines _pariter plangentes_, less clumsy than _parallelistic
songs_ adopted by Professor Henry R. Lang (who also uses the words
_serranas_--but see C. D. L., p. cxxxviii, note 2; Dr. Theophilo
Braga had called them _serranilhas_--and _Verkettungslieder_),
_Parallelstrophenlieder_ (D. Carolina Michaëlis de Vasconcellos),
_cantigas parallelisticas_ (D. Carolina Michaëlis de Vasconcellos
and Snr. J. J. Nunes), _chansons à répétitions_ (M. Alfred Jeanroy).
_Cantos dualisticos_, _cantos de danza prima_, and _bailadas
encadeadas_ have also been proposed.
[33] Perhaps = rhyme (_consoante_), but more probably it is derived
from _cosso_, an enclosed place, which would be used for dancing:
cf. Cristobal de Castillejo, _Madre, un caballero Que estaba en este
cosso (bailia)_. In the _Relacion de los fechos del mui magnifico é
mas virtuoso señor el señor Don Miguel Lucas_ [_de Iranzo_] _mui digno
Condestable de Castilla_, p. 446 (A.D. 1470), occurs the following
passage: _Y despues de danzar cantaron un gran rato de cosante_
(_Memorial Histórico Español_, tom. viii, Madrid, 1855). Rodrigo Cota,
in the _Diálogo entre el Amor y un Viejo_, has _danças y corsantes_,
and Antón de Montoro (el Ropero) asks _un portugues que vido vestido
de muchos colores_ if he is a _cantador de corsante_ (v. l. _cosante_)
(_Canc. General_, ed. Biblióf. Esp., ii. 270, no. 1018).
[34] In the _Grundriss_ (1894), _Randglossen_ (1896-1905), and
especially vol. ii of the _Cancioneiro da Ajuda_ (1904).
[35] Or _Solo ramo verde granado_: the green branch in (red) flower.
[36] Translations of Chinese poems resembling the _cossantes_ are given
by Dr. Theophilo Braga, C. V. B., _Introd._, p. ci, and Professor H. R.
Lang, C. D. L., _Introd._, p. cxlii. A Provençal poem with resemblance
to a _cossante_ is printed in Bartsch, p. 62: _Li tensz est bels, les
vinnesz sont flories_.
[37] Any one who has heard peasants at a _Stabat_ singing the hymn
Stabat Mater dolorosa
_Jussa crussa larimosa
Du penebat_ Filius
realizes that the words for them have no meaning, but that they will
long remember tune and rhythm. Compare, for the form, the Latin hymn to
the Virgin by the Breton poet Adam de Saint Victor (†1177):
Salve Verbi sacra parens,
Flos de spinis spinis carens,
Flos spineti gloria.
[38] Cf. Luis José Velázquez, _Orígenes de la Poesía Castellana_
(Málaga, 1754) ap. C. M. (1889), i. 168: _las cantares y canciones
devotas de los peregrinos que iban en romería a visitar la iglesia de
Compostela mantuvieron en Galicia el gusto de la poesía en tiempos
bárbaros_. A Latin hymn composed in the twelfth century by Aimeric
Picaud is printed in _Recuerdos de un Viaje á Santiago de Galicia_ por
el P. Fidel Fita y D. Aureliano Fernández-Guerra (Madrid, 1880), p. 45:
_Jacobi Gallecia Opem rogat piam Glebe cujus gloria Dat insignem viam
Ut precum frequentia Cantet melodiam. Herru Sanctiagu! Grot Sanctiagu!
Eultreja esuseja! Deus, adjuva nos!_
[39] Cf. Simão de Vasconcellos, _Cronica da Companhia de Jesu do Estado
do Brazil_ (1549-62), 2nd ed. (1865), Bk. I, § 22: _chegamos a huma
praça_ [in Santiago de Compostela] _onde vimos hum ajuntamento de
mulheres Gallegas com grande risada e galhofa; e querendo o irmão meu
companheiro pedir-lhe esmola vio que estavão todas ouvindo a huma que
feita pregadora arremedava, como por zombaria, o sermão que eu tinha
pregado_.
[40] One has but to watch a Rogation procession passing through the
fields in the Basque country (which until recently preserved customs of
immemorial eld and still calls the Feast of Corpus Christi, introduced
by Pope Urban IV in 1262, ‘the New Feast--_Festa Berria_’) to realize
the singularly impressive effect of the singing, first the girls’
treble _Ave Ave Ave Maria, Ave Ave Ave Maria_, then the answering bass
of the men far behind, _Ave Ave Ave Maria, Ave Ave Ave Maria_ (with the
slow ringing of the church bell for a refrain like the _contemplando_
and _tan callando_ in the _Coplas de Manrique_).
[41] Cf. Gil Vicente, _Tambor em cada moinho_. It is a curious
coincidence that the word _citola_ (the _jogral’s_ fiddle) =
mill-clapper. Cf. also _moinante_ in Galicia = _pícaro_.
[42] Cf. the _leixapren_ and refrain of the _cantiga_ danced and sung
at the end of Gil Vicente’s _Romagem de Aggravados_ (_Por Maio era, por
Maio_). The parallelism and _leixapren_ are present also in religious
poems by Alfonso X: C. M. 160, 250, 260. Snr. J. J. Nunes has noted
that in modern peasant dances, accompanied with song, the dancers
sometimes pause while the refrain is sung.
[43] C. V. contains many striking pilgrimage songs, sometimes wrongly
called _cantigas de ledino_. The word probably originated in a
printer’s error (_de ledino for dele dino_) in a line of _Chrisfal:
cantou canto de ledino_.
[44] Cf. the wailing refrains of C. V. 415, 417; and, for the _form_,
compare _e de mi, louçana!_ with _¡ay de mi, Alfama!_ In the _sense_ of
the two refrains lies all the difference between the poetry of Portugal
and Spain.
[45] C. C. B. 135 (= C. A. 389); C. V. 119, 181, 220, 527, 758, 964.
[46] _Endurar_, _besonha_, _greu_, _gracir_, _cousir_, _escarnir_,
_toste_, _entendedor_, _veiro_ (_varius_, Fr. _vair_, C. M. 213 has
_egua veira_), _genta_ (_genser_, _gensor_).
[47] C. V. 242-51, 979; C. C. B. 159-71 (= C. A. 70-81, 402).
[48] C. V. 414-16, 824-5; C. A. 281.
[49] Meen di nho in the C. V. M. index. Thus he is scarcely even a name.
[50] Or Esquio (? = _esquilo_, ‘squirrel’).
[51] Or Corpancho (Broade) or Campancho (Broadacre); but the word
_carpancho_ (= basket) exists in the region of Santander (_La
Montaña_). There is a modern Peruvian poet Manuel Nicolás Corpancho
(1830-63).
[52] This is the most probable form of his name, although modern
critics have presented him with various others.
[53] M. Alfred Jeanroy (_Les Origines_, 2ᵉ ed., 1904, p. 320) compares
with this _bailada_ the fragments _Tuit cil qui sunt enamourat Vignent
dançar, li autre non_ and _N’en nostre compaignie ne soit nus S’il
n’est amans_, but even if there was direct imitation here, which
is doubtful, that would not affect the indigenous character of the
_cossantes_.
[54] Or, according to D. C. Michaëlis de Vasconcellos, Moogo (from
_monachus_). _Meogo_ (= _meio_) occurs in C. M. 65 and 161, _moogo_ (=
monk) in C. M. 75 and 149.
[55] C. V. 392-402, 424-30, 1158-9; C. A. 246-56. Chariño is buried at
Pontevedra, in the Franciscan convent which he founded.
[56] Cf. the modern _Ai lé lé lé, marinheiro vira á ré_ or _Ai lé lé lé
Ribamar e S. José_.
[57] For later reminiscences of the _pastorela_ see C. Michaëlis de
Vasconcellos, _João Lourenço da Cunha, a ‘Flor de Altura’ e a cantiga
Ay Donas por qué em tristura?_ (_Separata da Revista Lusitana_, vol.
xix) Porto (1916), pp. 14-15.
[58] See _supra_, p. 23.
[59] A modern Portuguese quatrain runs
Passarinho que cantaes
Nesse raminho de flores,
Cantae vos, chorarei eu:
Assim faz quem tem amores.
[60] By the margin of a river Went a maiden singing, ever Of love sang
she:
Up the stream the boats came gliding Gracefully. All along the
river-bent The fair maiden singing went Of love’s dream: Fair to see
the boats came gliding Up the stream.
[61] _Poetica_ (C. C. B., p. 3, ll. 50-1).
[62] It probably does not rhyme (_e morre_ or _corre_) purposely. D.
Carolina Michaëlis de Vasconcellos proposes _gracioso_ or _friolo_ (_A
Saudade Portuguesa_, Porto, 1914, pp. 84, 140).
[63] _España Sagrada_, xx. 211.
[64] C. A. M. V. ii. 928-36. Almeida Garrett had written in a general
sense: _os vestigios d’essa poesia indigena ainda duram_ (_Revista
Univ. Lisbonense_, vol. v (1846), p. 843).
[65] At Rebordainhos, in Tras-os-Montes, e.g. _Na ribeirinha ribeira
Naquella ribeira Anda lá um peixinho vivo (bravo) Naquella ribeira_.
Other examples of the _i-a_ sequence are _amigo_ (_amado_), _cosido_
(_assado_), _villa_ (_praça_), _ermida_ (_oraga_), _linda_ (_clara_),
_Abril_ (_Natal_), _ceitil_ (_real_). See J. Leite de Vasconcellos,
_Annuario para o estudo das tradições populares portuguezas_ (Porto,
1882), pp. 19-24. Cf. the modern Asturian song with its refrain _¡Ay
Juana cuerpo garrido, ay Juana cuerpo galano!_
[66] Francisco Alvarez, _Verd. Inf._, p. 125, speaks of _cantigas de
bailhos e de terreiro_ (dance-songs).
[67] Cf. Barros, _Dial. em lovvor da nossa ling._, 1785 ed., p. 226:
_Pois as cantigas compostas do povo, sem cabeça, sem pees, sem nome ou
verbo que se entenda, quem cuidas que as traz e leva da terra? Quem as
faz serem tratadas e recebidas do comum consintimento? O tempo._