In the language of Arabia,
"For my errors" was inscrib'd there.

On his head a dark blue turban

Hanging o'er the side sinister,

Three black plumes tower'd proudly o'er him
In a precious jewel fixed.

Plumes, he mounted to betoken
That his fond desires were winged,
In the wind they still are waving
Tho' from glory disunited;
Now he bears but his good sabre
By Toledo's monarch given.
Thus the valiant Moor departed,
Valiant and unbending still he
Journeyed then with Marmolejo's
And Arjona's swain Alcaides.
Many a knight is gather'd round him,
All the people near him mingled;
And the ladies, as he journied,
Gave him looks the friendliest, kindest,
Many a briny tear is falling

Que en grave y airoso huello
Con ambas manos media
Lo que hay de la ancha al suelo.
Sobre una marlota negra
Un blanco albornoz se ha puesto
Por vestirse los colores
De su inocencia y su duelo
Bordó mil hierros de lanzas
Por el capellar, y en medio
En Arabigo una letra
Que dice-Estos son mis yerros
Bonete lleva turqui
Derribado al lado izquierdo
Y sobre el tres plumas presas
De un preciado camafeo.
No quiere salir sin plumas
Porque vuelen sus deseos
Si quien le quita la tierra
Tambien no le quita el viento.
No lleva mas de un alfange
Que le dió el rey de Toledo
Porque para un enemigo
El le basta y su derecho

From those eyes of beauty lighted;
Showers of fragrance fall upon him,
From the balconies then sprinkled;
Then the loveliest Balaxa,
Mourning in her deep retirement
O'er the monarch's desperate folly,
Her fair tresses strangely wilder'd,
Hearing such a loud confusion

Sought the balcony, and listen'd;
Then in melancholy muteness
Uttered with a tongue of silence:
Go in peace! thou'rt not abandoned,
Blessings still shall walk beside thee,
He who drives thee now from Jaen
From my
bosom cannot drive thee;
Plaintive then he turn'd towards her,
Tho' I go I tarry with thee,
And against the monarch's baseness
In thy truth I will confide me.
Then he hasten'd on his journey,
Fix'd his eyes upon the maiden,
Stole a hundred thousand glances
And to Andujar meekly hied he."

Desta suerte sale el Moro
Con animoso denuedo
En medio de los Alcaldes
De Arjona y del Marmolejo
Caballeros le acompañan
Y le sigue todo el pueblo
Y las Damas por do pasan
Se asoman llorando à verlo
Lagrimas vierten ahora
De sus tristes ojos bellos
Las que desde sus balcones
Aguas de olor le vertieron
La bellisima Balaxa
Que llora en su aposento
Las sinrazones del rey
La pagaban sus cabellos:
Como tanto estruendo oyó
A un balcon salió corriendo
E enmudecida le dixo
Dando voces con silencio:

This must be read with indulgence. It is perhaps the first attempt to naturalize the asonantes of the Península; and Mr. Southey might teach us how perilous it is to embark on an almost untried ocean. We presume not, indeed, that the production of our asonantes is likely to be referred to, as one of the most glorious events of the Georgian era, and should put on weeds of penitence if we had done the asonante measure the "unkind wrong" with which the hexameter has been unfortunately visited.

Before quitting this part of our theme, it is right to add, that the merits of Casiri, though very considerable in connection with the Arabic literature, have perhaps been greatly over-rated. He did much, no doubt, to fill up the chasms left by others; but he did every thing hurriedly, and many things erroneously. He is not to be trusted for correctness, either in facts, persons, or dates. He has introduced individuals, who never had any existence-confounded one name with another— he has falsified chronology, and played at blindman's buff with history. He knew Arabic well, but he was no Arabic scholar.

The Trobadores were the founders of modern verse, and form the link which unites the classic poets of Greece and Rome with those of later times, at least as far as regards the southern nations of Europe. The Provençal, Lemosin, or Valencian language, singularly harmonious and plastic, was used in various and not very distinct idioms, through the southern and eastern parts of France, the eastern provinces of Spain, and the adjacent islands of the Mediterranean. It is still the vernacular dialect of Catalonia and the Balearic Isles. In Valencia, it has been corrupted by the daily inroads of the Castillian, or pure Spanish; and even in Catalonia it has ceased to be the language of literature, though some poems of merit were published in it during the last century. The active inquiries of

Vete en paz que no vas solo
Y en tu ausencia ten consuelo
Que quien te echa de Jaen.
No te echarà de mi pecho
El con el mirar responde:
Yo me voy y no te dexo
De los agravios del Rey
Para tu firmeza apelo.
En esto pasó la calle
Los ojos atras volviendo
Cien mil veces y de Andujar
Tomó el camin derecho."

Ranouard have enabled him to discover older vestiges in France than are known to exist in Spain, the eleventh century being the greatest distance to which any fragments of the Spanish Trobadores are referred. In the twelfth and thirteenth, and especially the latter, the list becomes numerous and adorned with most interesting names. The fourteenth is perhaps its brightest era; and in the fifteenth, the union of the crowns of Arragon and Castille led to the final preponderance of the Castillian over the Valencian dialect, and gave a death blow to the beautiful language in which Jordi, and Roig, and Ausias March, had sung. Boscan, a Catalan by birth, abandoned his native tongue, and wrote in Spanish; and the Canciones of this period, published in the eastern provinces, are mingled with Castillian pieces. One or two poets endeavoured to graft the peculiarities of Spanish versification on the old stock of the Valencian dialect, but they had little success. The most renowned of the Trobadores were speedily clad in Castillian garments, and the originals are now referred to rather as matters of literary curiosity, than as entitled to be quoted or praised.

It is much to the honor of the royal race of Spain, that great encouragement was given by its kings to the cultivation of poetry, that several of them were themselves poets, who, had they not been kings, would have been well thought of, and as kings are entitled to be spoken of with peculiar honor. The race is now certainly degenerated, for whatever else of noble feeling and heroic virtue may have come down to the monarchs of our days, the "breath divine," they have not inherited. Among the poets, Peter the First and Second, Alonzo the Great, John the First, and Alonzo the Wise-among the protectors of poetry, almost all the Arragonese monarchs might be mentioned.

A new name was given to the studies and to the productions of the Trobadores, and the gay saber, or the gaya sciencia, (the cheerful or joyous art,) engaged the attention and the ambition of the most illustrious individuals. Considering the great changes this school of poetry has produced in modern song, it is worthy of remark, that its influence has not yet been accurately traced, nor indeed honestly recognized. But of the Spanish Trobadores, many are distinguished for the harmony of their versification, as well as the simplicity, tenderness, beauty, and, frequently, energy, of their style. We have already said, their language was rich in musical sounds, abounding with rhymes, and divested of every thing harsh and grating in its utterance,-equally free from the deep gutturals of its twin sister, the Castillian, and the often recurring nasal sound of the Portuguese. The subjects of these songs were various,-not often the rude shock of battle, but

the soft tumults of love,-not the ferocious and fatal conquests of the sword, but the struggling of the passions-the contest for poetical superiority-the charms of the fair-the virtues and the miracles of saints and martyrs.

The hendecasillabic verse was that generally employed by the Trobadores. The most common compositions were their tenzones, (from contensiones,) or questions and disputes, of which love was the subject; and which were referred to the decision of the Courts of Love, afterwards the arbiters of poetic fame. The poetical tribunals were presided over by kings and princes -there nobles, of the highest ranks, pressed in to eager competition, and they were honored and graced by the presence of every thing that was gallant and illustrious in the one sex, or graceful and beautiful in the other.

"What is become of those lovely dames,
Their jewels, perfumes, and bright attire,
And tall plumes flying?

What is become of those ardent flames,
Lighted from passion's wildest fire,
For lovers sighing?

What is become of the soft romance?
What is become of the joyous song,
And the music of the lover?
Where is now that graceful dance
Tripping the rosy path along?
Ah! all is over!

"Twas but a vision's hasty glance;
Fading flowers on a garland hung
Ne'er to recover!"*

# (C ¿Que se hicieron las damas
Sus tocados, sus vestidos
sus olores?

¿Que se hicieron las llamas
de los fuegos encendidos
de amadores?

¿Que se hizo aquel trovar
las musicas acordadas
que tanian?

¿Que se hizo aquil danzar
aquellas rosas chapadas
que traian?