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“ Pilferbo pickpock Squosh."
Squosh ravages, pillages,
Houses and villages,

To build his mud-palace at Squosh-dungjalec,
But, egad, it's no wonder

The rogue's fond of plunder,

For two of a trade can never agree.

Some of our own exquisites might be benefited if they would attention to the sting of this happy jeu d'esprit.

"Bu dripscotce switchcoo turpen."

With suet-dripping head and pitch'd rattan,
Perfumed with tar, a dandy in attire,
Phopfoo seems more a woman than a man;

The reason's plain-a burnt child dreads the fire.

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We shall conclude with a brilliant sally, which, had it been launched upon the banks of Cam or Isis, would have alone established the fame of its author as a sparkling epigrammatist.

On Gourla a celebrated beauty, wearing the cheek-bones of sacrificed prisoners in her ears.

"Avah flatsnoutah tam bu dirah."

Forbear, proud beauty, with such cruel skill
To make dead heroes their survivors kill;
Too many cooks, we know, will spoil the broth,
So cut your coat according to your cloth.

H.

STUDIES IN SPANISH HISTORY.—NO. II.*

Prince Don Juan Manuel, and his Book El Conde Lucanor; with the History of Count Don Rodrigo the Liberal, and his Knights.

THE love of letters appears at an early period among the sovereigns who reigned in different parts of Spain. Alfonso III. who held the crown of Leon from 862 to 910, is believed to be the author of one of the Spanish chronicles. But the learning of that age hardly deserves the name of literature, in the sense which we are accustomed to give that word. The dim rays of knowledge which are discovered in the scanty documents of that century, whether proceeding from a crowned or a tonsured head, are all the legitimate offspring of the cloisters.

Not so the polite literature of the courts of Aragon and Castille from the twelfth to the fifteenth century, which, perfectly independent of the clerical schools, sprang up round the thrones, and flourished in the camps of those noble-hearted nations. Four kings of Aragon, three of whom stood in the relation of father, son, and grandson, were poets historians, and legislators. † Ferdinand III., in whose person the crowns of Leon and Castille were finally and permanently united, notwithstanding his incessant and successful wars against the Moors,

* It is not intended that these sketches should appear in a chronological order. They are, in fact, what their title imports, short essays, towards a work which the writer has in contemplation, and for which he is collecting materials.

† Alfonso II., James J., Peter III., and Alfonso III. See Nicholas Antonio, Bibliotheca Vetus.

by which he confined them to the kingdom of Granada, had (says his son Alfonso the Sage*) a great value for minstrels, whose art he possessed; and shewed favour to high-bred gentlemen who were poets and musicians. To this taste for literature that great man united a love of every kind of useful knowledge. He gave his son and successor, Alfonso the Sage, an education which has immortalized his name as a man of learning. The cultivation of the mind, according to the means which that age afforded, still continued to be an object of the first consideration in the royal family of Castille. Sancho IV., the Strong, second son of Alfonso the Sage, who usurped the throne from the children of his deceased brother, Ferdinand de la Cerda, found leisure among the employments of a warlike and ambitious life, to write a work on general knowledge, which might supply the deficiencies of the theological system of instruction which the regular tutors of princes and noblemen seem to have pursued in that age. His work, el Lucidario, is still in manuscript at the royal libraries of Madrid and the Escurial. It is written in questions and answers, the dialogue being opened by an observation of the pupil, that though he is indebted to his tutor for the knowledge of many things, yet they all relate to divinity. On this ground the learned king catechises the imaginary tutor, furnishing him with answers in Natural Philosophy, Ethics, and even Divinity, which a real one might probably have been at a loss to give.

But the most striking proof of talent and literary acquirements exhibited by that family, is the work which affords a subject to the present article. Don Juan Manuel, the author of the Conde Lucanor, was a grandson of Ferdinand III., called the Saint, by the Prince Don Manuel, third son of Alfonso the Sage, and a younger brother of Sancho IV., called the Strong. We cannot learn the year of his birth, though it is known that in 1310, his cousin, Ferdinand IV., el Emplazado, made him Lord High Steward of his household. On the death, however, of that monarch, the heir, Alfonso XI., being an infant, a contest for the guardianship arose among his numerous and powerful relations; and three guardians were finally appointed, one of whom was our author.

During the minority of Alfonso, Don Juan Manuel appears to have enjoyed the favour of his royal relative, from whom he obtained the command of the Moorish frontiers, and a promise of marriage with his daughter Constanza Manuel.

The talents of Don Juan Manuel were no less fitted for private than public and military life. He greatly distinguished himself against the Moors of Granada, whom he distressed and defeated by frequent inroads. But the turbulent state of the Castilian court soon turned his

* In the preface to a book entitled El Setenario. "Pagabase de hombres cantadores; sabiendolo él fazer; e otrosi pagandose de homes de Corte que sabien bien trobar e cantar."

+ Yo só tu discipulo, e tu me has ensenado mucho. Empero el saber que tu me mostraste, es todo de Teologia." Bayer, in a note to Nicholas Antonio, Bibl. Vetus, tells us, that the Lucidario was translated into Italian, and that the translation is mentioned by Maittaire, Annales Typographici.

The Summoned. Two brothers, the Caravajales, who, on suspicion of having committed a murder, were precipitated from the Rock of Martos, summoned the king to appear before God forty days after their death. Ferdinand died at the end of the appointed period.

arms from the national enemies against the king his master. Alfonso, freed from the restraints of his minority, indulged a feeling of revenge against Don Juan, el Tuerto, his uncle and late guardian, by treacherously putting him to death, having seized him in the palace, at his own table, whither he was invited under semblance of reconciliation and returning friendship. Don Juan Manuel, whose daughter had at this time been sent back before the consummation of her espousals, conceiving that he could not be safe under the government of his fierce and faithless relative, availed himself of the ancient Spanish privilege by which a vassal might legally abjure his allegiance; and having sent due notice of his determination, declared war at the expiration of the term appointed by the common law of the country. This civil war was conducted with great skill and determination on both sides. Alfonso's treacherous murder of his uncle seemed to preclude all agreement; but, though tainted in early youth with the bloody and savage spirit of the times, he was not deficient in good qualities, which age and experience confirmed and improved. He saw the necessity of maintaining his authority against the rebels, though he found it at times difficult to withstand their forces, directed by the genius of his relative Don Juan Manuel but, by courage and firmness, he succeeded at last against them, forcing Don Juan Nuñez to surrender at discretion, and Don Juan Manuel to fly to Aragon, where he remained till, at the intercession of his mother, a princess of that royal house, he was again received into Alfonso's favour.

From that time Don Juan Manuel devoted his military talents to the advancement of the Christian interest in his native country. He attended the king in his incessant wars against the Moors, who, though confined, as a nation, to the territory of Granada, had still possession of many fortified places in Andalusia. Seventeen of these strong holds were taken by Alfonso, with the assistance of Don Juan Manuel and such was the renown for valour which he left after his death, that his name alone was able to stir up the courage of the Spanish nobility on any emergency of uncommon danger. Of this there was an instance during the siege of Antequera, where Don Juan Manuel's great-grandson, the Infante Don Fernando, commanded the besieging army. The Moors had taken a hill so advantageously situated, that the siege could not be pressed while the enemy possessed it. A council of war was held; but the practicability of an attempt to dislodge the Moors was questioned by most of the knights present. "Oh!" exclaimed Don Fernando, "oh for my ancestor Don Juan Manuel to lead us !" The courage of all present fired up at these words; the troops were instantly led out, and the Moors driven into the town with great slaughter.

The most surprising trait in the character of Don Juan Manuel is his love of learning, and his proficiency in literature, at a period when the Spaniards were still a nation of mere warriors. One can hardly conceive how a Spanish prince, whose life was spent in camps or besieged towns, who had to oppose the power of his own king, for a considerable period, and manage the interests of his own family and vassals,

One-eyed, or blind of one eye; a contemptuous appellation among the Spa

niards.

could find leisure, not only to collect a great variety of information, but to impart it to his countrymen in no less than eleven works, on history, military tactics, ethics, politics, and the chase, besides a collection of original poems. Of these works the greatest part appear to be lost. The list of their titles is found in a MS. of his work De los Exemplos,* which the learned Bayer believes to have been written during the life of the author, and is now preserved in the Royal Library at Madrid. Don Juan Manuel died about the year 1347.

We proceed to acquaint our readers with the only work of our author which has been published. The first edition of the Conde Lucanor, a beautiful copy of which lies before us,t was made at Seville in 1575. Gonzalo de Argote y de Molina, a native of that town, no less distinguished by his birth than for the services he rendered to the literature of his country, met, at Madrid, with a manuscript of the Conde Lucanor; and, being highly pleased with the work, obtained a royal licence for printing it. Before he got it through the press, the celebrated historian of Aragon, Zurita, lent him his own written copy of the same work, and Doctor Oretano, the tutor of the Duke of Medina Sidonia, furnished him with another; so that the original edition was made from the collation of three old MSS.

The Conde Lucanor is a collection of historical anecdotes, tales and apologues, amounting in all to forty-nine. A person of elevated rank, to whom the author gives the above name, is supposed to consult Patronio, a man of superior learning and judgment, whom the Count employs as his adviser. The questions are always practical, and relating either to morals or politics. The case is stated to Patronio, who never fails to recollect an anecdote, or fable, expressive of his own opinion upon the subject. This is followed by an application of the most prominent circumstances of the example to the original question; and the whole concludes with the moral of the tale, compressed into a poetical

sentence.

The German critic, Bouterweck, has spoken of the Conde Lucanor in terms of commendation. But though he, among the foreign writers who have treated of the literature of Spain, appears to us the best acquainted with his subject, we cannot help a suspicion that his opinions are sometimes the result of but a slight examination of works written in a language not perfectly familiar to him. In choosing a specimen from the Conde Lucanor, Bouterweck fixed upon the first story in the book; perhaps the dullest in the whole collection. We cannot explain to ourselves how a professed admirer of the romantic should have overlooked some historical anecdotes of uncommon interest, as it appears to us, in that line. A regular history of Spain could hardly furnish the imagination with a more striking sketch of the original Spanish character, than the following

HISTORY OF DON RODRIGO EL FRANCO (THE LIBERAL) AND HIS KNIGHTS. Count Don Rodrigo the Liberal had married a daughter of Don Garcia de Azagra. She was no less virtuous than noble; yet her hus

We cannot ascertain whether this is a MS. of the Conde Lucanor, under a different title.

For the perusal of this very rare book we are indebted to the civility of the Rev. Stephen Weston.

band opened his heart to jealousy, and charged her with being faithless to his bed. The heart of the noble matron was wrung with this undeserved reproach, and she fell upon her knees, raising her eyes and hands to Heaven. "Great and just God!" she exclaimed, "if I am guilty of the crime which is laid to my charge, let thy hand strike me so visibly, that I may not be able to hide my shame from the eyes of man. But if I am innocent and falsely accused"... Here she stopped, and a gush of tears choked her voice.

In vain did the rash husband try to subdue her grief and indignation. She retired without listening to the excuses and entreaties which he now made to obtain pardon. A husband who doubted her honour was unworthy of her love. The countess retired with her women, and left the self-degraded Rodrigo to reproach himself for the injustice and weakness of his conduct.

Few days had elapsed when, to the utter dismay of the wretched count, the most indubitable symptoms of leprosy appeared upon his body. Such a calamity would have been sufficiently appalling without the conviction which now flashed upon his mind, that the Almighty hand which his innocent wife had adjured to point out the guilty, was now laid upon him, in anger. The disease was rapid in its progress, and Rodrigo soon became a loathsome object both to himself and those who approached him.

Three, of all his retainers, would not desert their lord in his affliction. These were Don Pero Nuñez de Fuente Almexir, Don Ruy Gonzalez de Zavallos, and Don Gutierre Rodriguez de Langueruella, all of them knights of honourable descent and connexions. The countess had pleaded her husband's disease, and obtained a bull of divorce from the Pope. The rest of his household, fearing the consequences of the law, which doomed those who approached a leper to live by themselves in the fields, had fled the baronial mansion. Oppressed with sorrow, Count Don Rodrigo could not endure a life of misery and degradation in his own country; but, disposing of the remnant of his fortune, which was, it seems, greatly reduced by the prodigality which obtained him the addition of el Franco, resolved to pass the rest of his days in the Holy Land.

The three faithful knights, who appeared to have but one great aim in life, that of standing as bright and spotless patterns of feudal loyalty, took leave of their families, and set off with their master, vowing never to return without either him or his bones. The money which the count had raised was spent in the course of a few years; and both he and his knights began to feel the bitterness of want in a strange and distant land. In the accumulated distress which was the natural result of sick. ness and poverty, Rodrigo found that one treasure alone is inexhaustible, the friendship of noble hearts. One of the three knights used, by turns, to nurse him in the day-time, whilst the other two, hiring themselves at the public market as day-labourers, earned what would support them all. In the evening they joined for the purpose of relieving their master's sufferings, by putting him into a warm bath.

It happened that, while performing this service, their patient, exhausted both in body and mind, observed them turning aside to spit. The idea of his loathsomeness instantly overpowered him, and he burst into tears. No sooner, however, had the feeling attendants ascertained

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