Note 686 — Chapter XXI
Reading edition
The lines on the court of John II. are among the most beautiful in the poem:—
Where is the King, Don Juan? where Each royal prince and noble heir Of Aragon? Where are the courtly gallantries? The deeds of love and high emprise, In battle done? Tourney and joust, that charmed the eye, And scarf, and gorgeous panoply, And nodding plume,— What were they but a pageant scene? What but the garlands, gay and green, That deck the tomb? Where are the high-born dames, and where Their gay attire, and jewelled hair, And odors sweet? Where are the gentle knights, that came To kneel, and breathe love’s ardent flame, Low at their feet? Where is the song of the Troubadour? Where are the lute and gay tambour They loved of yore? Where is the mazy dance of old, The flowing robes, inwrought with gold, The dancers wore?
These two stanzas, as well as the one in the text, are from Mr. H. W. Longfellow’s beautiful translation of the Coplas, first printed, Boston, 1833, 12mo, and often since. They may be compared with a passage in the verses on Edward IV. attributed to Skelton, and found in the “Mirror for Magistrates,” (London, 1815, 4to, Tom. II. p. 246,) in which that prince is made to say, as if speaking from his grave,—
“Where is now my conquest and victory? Where is my riches and royall array? Where be my coursers and my horses hye? Where is my myrth, my solace, and my play?”
Indeed, the tone of the two poems is not unlike, though, of course, the old English laureate never heard of Manrique and never imagined any thing half so good as the Coplas. The Coplas were often imitated;—among the rest, as Lope de Vega tells us, (Obras Sueltas, Madrid, 1777, 4to, Tom. XI. p. xxix.,) by Camoens; but I do not know the Redondillas of Camoens to which he refers. Lope admired the Coplas very much. He says they should be written in letters of gold.