Note 662 — Chapter XX
Reading edition
The Hymn in question is in Castro, Tom. I. p. 269; but, as a specimen of Villasandino’s easiest manner, I prefer the following verses, which he wrote for Count Pero Niño, to be given to the Lady Beatrice, of whom, as was noticed when speaking of his Chronicle, the Count was enamoured:—
La que siempre obedecí, E obedezco todavia, Mal pecado, solo un dia Non se le membra de mi. Perdí Meu tempo en servir A la que me fas vevir Coidoso desque la ví, etc.
But as the editor of the Chronicle says, (Madrid, 1782, 4to, p. 223,) “They are verses that might be attributed to any other gallant or any other lady, so that it seems as if Villasandino prepared such couplets to be given to the first person that should ask for them”;—words cited here, because they apply to a great deal of the poetry of the time of John II., which deals often in the coldest commonplaces, and some of which was used, no doubt, as this was.