fight, in which the Castilians meet the combined French and Navarrese forces, takes place on the banks of the Ebro, and Fernan Gonçalez kills the count of Toulouse with his own hand and thus turns the tide of battle against the invaders. The body or the count of Toulouse is then embalmed and sent back to France, the Castilian leader showing his regard for his enemy by accompanying the remains with a guard of honor and by giving money with which to buy candles. Now, an important point in the narrative noted above is the fact that the Poema speaks of the French army as being under the leadership of two counts, the count of Poitou and the count of Toulouse. Let us here see what the Crónica General says on this point, and for this purpose the following passage is taken from one of the best extant manuscripts of the chronicle; namely, X-i-4, of the Escorial Library 1 : EL CAPITULO, DE COMO LIDIO EL CONDE FERNAN GONÇALEZ CON EL CONDE DE TOLOSA YL MATO. Pues que el Rey don Sancho de Nauarra fue muerto en la lid e los Nauarros uençudos, llego el conde de Tolosa e de Piteos que uinie en ayuda del Rey. E quando sopo que el Rey era muerto, ouo ende muy grand pesar e dixo que el querie yr lidiar con los castellanos e uengar el Rey don Sancho si pudiesse, e llegaron se luego todos los nauarros a el. Quando el conde Fernan Gonçalez sopo que el conde de Tolosa uinie sobrell con los nauarros, mando luego mouer contra alla. Mas los caualleros fueron despagados del porque sienpre auien a andar armados e nunqua los dexaua folgar ... 1. Parchment, fifteenth century, written in double columns. The passage cited occurs fol. 57 recto, col. 1-2. A detailed description of the ms. may be found in Menéndez Pidal, La Leyenda de los Infantes de Lara, p. 384. 2. In the edition of the Cron. Gen. Zamora, 1541, fol. CCXLiii, verso, col. 2, the passage is as follows: « Despues quel rey don Sancho fue muerto e los Nauarros vençidos llego el conde de Tolosa e de Piteos que venie en ayuda del rey don Sancho. E quando sopo quel rey don Sancho era muerto ouo ende muy gran pesar e dixo quel querie yr a lidiar con los Castellanos e vengar al rey don Sancho si podiese : e llegaron todos los Nauarros a el. e quando sopo el conde Ferran Gonçalez : In this passage the Crónica General speaks of but one count, <«< El conde de Piteos e de Tolosa », and throughout the subsequent narrative of the battle and of the death of the count of Toulouse, the chronicle carries out the idea that the invading army is under the control of one count. This thought is shown by the use of the word conde, and by the use of the singular number of nouns, pronouns, articles, adjectives and verbs, whenever reference is made to the French leader. Let us now study more closely the corresponding portion of the Poema, using for this purpose the Escorial manuscript and merely resolving the conventional signs of abbreviation. The passage reads as follows: (325.) El conde pyteos e el conde de tolosa paryentes eran del rrey don sancho esto es cierta cosa (326.) Los condes non uyaron a la lid llegar pero quando lo sopyeron non quisyeron detardar al puerto de getarea ovyeron arrybar (327.) Los navarros a los condes todos a ellos se llegaron commo fue la fazienda todo gello contaron quantos fueron los muertos quantos los que fyncaron The fifteenth-century copyist is of the opinion that the «< conde de Pyteos» and the « conde de Tolosa » are (or ought to be) two separate and distinct persons, and he carries out this idea by changing articles, nouns, pronouns and verbs from the singular quel conde de Tolosa venie sobre el con todos los Navarros mando luego mover contra el. e toda su conpaña fue despagada del porque siempre auien de andar armados e nunca les dexaua folgar... » 1. The following collations will give some idea of how carelessly the poem has been edited by Gallardo (Ensayo, I, cols. 763-804) and Janer: 325 a, G. Pyrees; 325 d, G. que era muy astrosa; 326a, G. negaron; 326c, G. le; 326d, J. ovyeron de arrybar; 327 d, J. al, omits le. to the plural number whenever such changes are necessary for a correct grammatical expression of his theory. The fact that such changes effect the metre in nearly every instance seems to have troubled our scribe as little as did the grammatical emendations noted at the beginning of this article. Fortunately, both the metre and the context can be restored by simply undoing what our scribe took so much pains to do, in his efforts to emend the original text. In the following re-constructed text of coplas 325-327, the singular forms, which had been mutilated by the scribe, are put in italics: 325. El conde [de] Pyteos | e (el) conde de Tolosa, Pariente era del rrey (don Sancho), | esto es cierta cosa Tomó de sus condados | conpaña muy fermosa, Movyo para Casty[e]lla | en ora muy astrrosa. 326. El conde non uyó [por] á la lid llegar, Pero quando lo sopo | non quiso detardar; Al buen rrey de Navarra | [byen] cuydó lo vengar, Al puerto de Getarea | [el] ovo arrybar. In the last line of the passage cited above, the scribe, by a curious oversight, retains the original el and le instead of changing these singular forms to ellos and les respectively. Furthermore, 1. 326 a, vyó pret. third pers. sing of vyar, 'to travel', 'to journey'. 326 c, Byen cuydó, cf. 255c: Byen cuydava ese dia rreygnar ay el pecado; 280 b, Byen cuydava que nunca dellos seryen bengados; 592 c: Byen cuydo que durara fasta la fyn conplida. 327 a, While the Escorial ms. of the Cron. Gen. has se llegaron, the edition of Zamora, 1541 (which is much nearer the original Poema in many cases) has llegaron. Furthermore, in no other instance is llegar used reflexively in the ms. of the Poema. throughout the remainder of the episode; namely, coplas 328379, the «< conde de Tolosa » is the sole leader of the French forces though his troops are called « tolosanos 1», « pytavynos » (petavynos) and « gascones » 3. 2 I As a result of the preceding discussion it becomes evident that the authors of Crónica General and the original Poema de Fernan Gonçalez are uniform in supposing that French aid was brought to the defeated Navarese army through one count, who was the lord both of Poitou and Toulouse. But who was this « conde de Piteos e de Tolosa »? In our poem his character is purely legendary, for in the tenth century (the century in which the battle in question is supposed to have occurred), there was no such French intervention in the affairs of Castille, nor was there a count who ruled, at that time, over the counties of Poitou and Toulouse. In short, the whole episode is due to a confusion of historic personages and events which belong to a period much later than the time of Fernan Gonçalez, and it is even possible that certain details of the narrative were suggested by incidents. which occurred during the lifetime of the author of the poem. Charles CARROLL MARDEN. 1. Cf. 355 a, 357b, 360d, 362 d, 364 c, 371 a, 379a. 2. Cf. 356b, 359 b. 3. Cf. 360d; also 369c, where the Count of Toulouse is called: «el gascon ». OBSERVATIONS SUR LA CÉLESTINE On a admis jusqu'ici que la Célestine fut publiée pour la première fois en 1499, à Burgos suivant les uns, à Medina del Campo suivant les autres1; - sous sa forme première elle avait seize actes, mais l'auteur porta ultérieurement ce nombre à vingt et un, les actes XV et XVI devenant les actes 20 et 212; les éditions de la forme primitive présentent d'importantes variantes avec les éditions de la forme ultérieure ; - dans une lettre a vn su amigo placée en tête du volume, l'auteur déclare 1. Sur la prétendue édition de Medina del Campo 1499, voir l'appendice B, à la fin de la présente étude. Parmi ceux qui n'ont pas connu l'existence d'éditions en seize actes, quelques-uns, Schack notamment, ont considéré comme édition princeps une édition de Salamanque 1500 qui n'a jamais existé. Voir l'appendice D. 2. Nous indiquons par des chiffres romains les actes de la forme primitive, et par des chiffres arabes ceux de la forme ultérieure. 3. Tal como la leemos hoy, consta de veintiún actos; las dos primeras ediciones (il y en eut au moins trois, comme on le verra) no tienen más que diez y seis, y ofrecen además singulares variantes, que todavía no han sido sometidas á un examen crítico. » Menéndez y Pelayo, La Celestina, p. 75, in Estudios de critica literaria, segunda serie. Madrid, 1895 (Colección de escritores castellanos, 106.) — L'étude de M. Menéndez y Pelayo parut d'abord dans le tome IV du Diccionario enciclopédico hispano-americano de literatura, ciencias y artes (Barcelona, 1888, pp. 1094-1097), puis dans le journal quotidien El Liberal de Madrid, du 6 avril 1894 (onzième article d'une série intitulée El Plutarco del pueblo). |