Note 31 — Chapter II
Reading edition
The metrical form adopted by Berceo, which he himself calls the quaderna via, and which is in fact that of the poem of Apollonius, should be particularly noticed, because it continued to be a favorite one in Spain for above two centuries. The following stanzas, which are among the best in Berceo, may serve as a favorable specimen of its character. They are from the “Signs of the Judgment,” Sanchez, Tom. II. p. 274.
Esti sera el uno · de los signos dubdados: Subira a los nubes · el mar muchos estados, Mas alto que las sierras · è mas que los collados, Tanto que en sequero · fincaran los pescados. Las aves esso mesmo · menudas è granadas Andaran dando gritos · todas mal espantadas; Assi faran las bestias · por domar è domadas, Non podran à la noche · tornar à sus posadas. And this shall be one of the signs · that fill with doubts and fright: The sea its waves shall gather up, · and lift them, in its might, Up to the clouds, and far above · the dark sierra’s height, Leaving the fishes on dry land, · a strange and fearful sight. The birds besides that fill the air, · the birds both small and great, Shall screaming fly and wheel about, · scared by their coming fate; And quadrupeds, both those we tame · and those in untamed state, Shall wander round nor shelter find · where safe they wonned of late.
There was, no doubt, difficulty in such a protracted system of rhyme, but not much; and when rhyme first appeared in the modern languages, an excess of it was the natural consequence of its novelty. In large portions of the Provençal poetry, its abundance is quite ridiculous; as in the “Croisade contre les Hérétiques Albigeois,”—a remarkable poem, dating from 1210, excellently edited by M. C. Fauriel, (Paris, 1837, 4to,)—in which stanzas occur where the same rhyme is repeated above a hundred times. When and where this quaternion rhyme, as it is used by Berceo, was first introduced, cannot be determined; but it seems to have been very early employed in poems that were to be publicly recited. (F. Wolf, Ueber die Lais, Wien. 1841, 8vo, p. 257.) The oldest example I know of it, in a modern dialect, dates from about 1100, and is found in the curious MS. of Poetry of the Waldenses (F. Diez, Troubadours, Zwickau, 1826, 8vo, p. 230) used by Raynouard;—the instance to which I refer being “Lo novel Confort,” (Poésies des Troubadours, Paris, 1817, 8vo, Tom. II. p. 111,) which begins,—
Aquest novel confort de vertuos lavor Mando, vos scrivent en carita et en amor: Prego vos carament per l’amor del segnor, Abandona lo segle, serve a Dio cum temor.
In Spain, whither it no doubt came from Provence, its history is simply,—that it occurs in the poem of Apollonius; that it gets its first known date in Berceo about 1230; and that it continued in use till the end of the fourteenth century.
The thirteen thousand verses of Berceo’s poetry, including even the Hymns, are, with the exception of about twenty lines of the “Duelo de la Vírgen,” in this measure. These twenty lines constitute a song of the Jews who watched the sepulchre after the crucifixion, and, like the parts of the demons in the old Mysteries, are intended to be droll, but are, in fact, as Berceo himself says of them, more truly than perhaps he was aware, “not worth three figs.” They are, however, of some consequence, as perhaps the earliest specimen of Spanish lyrical poetry that has come down to us with a date. They begin thus:—
Velat, aliama de los Judios, Eya velar! Que no vos furten el fijo de Dios, Eya velar! Car furtarvoslo querran, Eya velar! Andre è Piedro et Johan, Eya velar! Duelo, 178-9.
Watch, congregation of the Jew, Up and watch! Lest they should steal God’s son from you, Up and watch! For they will seek to steal the son, Up and watch! His followers, Andrew, and Peter, and John, Up and watch!
Sanchez considers it a Villancico, to be sung like a litany (Tom. IV. p. ix.); and Martinez de la Rosa treats it much in the same way. Obras, Paris, 1827, 12mo, Tom. I. p. 161.
In general, the versification of Berceo is regular,—sometimes it is harmonious; and though he now and then indulges himself in imperfect rhymes, that may be the beginning of the national asonantes (Sanchez, Tom. II. p. xv.) still the license he takes is much less than might be anticipated. Indeed, Sanchez represents the harmony and finish of his versification as quite surprising, and uses stronger language in relation to it than seems justifiable, considering some of the facts he admits. Tom. II. p. xi.