Note 57 — Chapter III
Reading edition
Take the following as a specimen. Alfonso beseeches the Madonna rather to look at her merits than at his own claims, and runs through five stanzas, with the choral echo to each, “Saint Mary, remember me!”
Non catedes como Pequei assas, Mais catad o gran Ben que en vos ias; Ca uos me fesestes Como quen fas Sa cousa quita Toda per assi. Santa Maria! nenbre uos de mi! Non catedes a como Pequey greu, Mais catad o gran ben Que uos Deus deu; Ca outro ben se non Uos non ei eu Nen ouue nunca Des quando naci. Santa Maria! nenbre uos de mi!
Castro, Bibl., Tom. II. p. 640.
This has, no doubt, a very Provençal air; but others of the Cántigas have still more of it. The Provençal poets, in fact, as we shall see more fully hereafter, fled in considerable numbers into Spain at the period of their persecution at home; and that period corresponds to the reigns of Alfonso and his father. In this way a strong tinge of the Provençal character came into the poetry of Castile, and remained there a long time. The proofs of this early intercourse with Provençal poets are abundant. Aiméric de Bellinoi was at the court of Alfonso IX., who died in 1214, (Histoire Littéraire de la France, par des Membres de l’Institut, Paris, 4to, Tom. XIX. 1838, p. 507,) and was afterwards at the court of Alfonso X. (Ibid., p. 511.) So were Montagnagout, and Folquet de Lunel, both of whom wrote poems on the election of Alfonso X. to the throne of Germany. (Ibid., Tom. XIX. p. 491, and Tom. XX. p. 557; with Raynouard, Troubadours, Tom. IV. p. 239.) Raimond de Tours and Nat de Mons addressed verses to Alfonso X. (Ibid., Tom. XIX. pp. 555, 577.) Bertrand Carbonel dedicated his works to him; and Giraud Riquier, sometimes called the last of the Troubadours, wrote an elegy on his death, already referred to. (Ibid., Tom. XX. pp. 559, 578, 584.) Others might be cited, but these are enough.