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Hispanic Review.
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342
James T. Monroe
HB, 43 (1975)
even in short compositions arising from a traditional milieu, formulas, textual instability, and composition according to set traditional themes and motifs all occur with sufficient frequency to
warrant our labelling such poems oral. Nevertheless, the formulaic approach has not yet been applied to the popular medieval
Romance love lyric.
Here we are faced with a difficulty inherent in the texts that
have survived; one that has been felt keenly by most scholars
who have studied the popular lyric, namely the fact that it is
often difficult, if not impossible, to distinguish between authentically oral poetry of that genre, and the literate pastiches composed in imitation of it by learned poets. Furthermore, the
brevity of the texts leads to unsatisfactory results when an attempt is made to compile statistical information about their
formulaic density following the procedures outlined by Parry and
Lord. Despite this difficulty, however, the verbal repetitions
found in Galician canciones de amigo, Castilian villancicos, Mozarabic haryas, and Old French refrains, are often quite striking,
whether they be considered fully formulaic or not. At the same
time, composition according to fixed themes is characteristic of
the whole corpus. Therefore, leaving aside for the moment the
question of its orality, it may be accurately described as traditional in style.
Scholarly consensus regarding the four poetic traditions mentioned above would seem to indicate the existence of an authentic
popular or folk lyric dealing with love and expressing the latter
both from the masculine and the feminine viewpoint. Later, and
at different periods in the history of Galician, Castilian, FrancoProvengal, Arabic, and Hebrew literature, learned poets began
to imitate the popular tradition in different ways; either by borrowing themes that were popular, or by adopting popular prosodic
forms in learned poetry. At times the learned pastiche is so
cleverly contrived that it is impossible to detect the forgery,
while at others, the imitation is obvious. For the purposes of
the present article, therefore, it can be safely assumed that underlying the four traditions there is a substratum of popular poetry
that may not in all instances have survived in its purest form,
but which is reflected to some extent in later and learned imitations.
This assumption can be supported by previous observations
made by Romance scholars, the ultimate implications of which
344
James T. Monroe
HB, 43 (1975)
En Cafiatafiazor
perdi6 Almanror
ell atamor.
It was recorded in 1236 by the chroniclerLucas de Tuy, but it alludes to the
defeat and death of al-Mansuribn Abi eAmir, which took place in 1002.
(xxvII)
(XL)
(XLII)
(III)
(LVII)
(xxxIx)
(LVIII)
bay-?e e no me
tornade
(vii)
(xxxviii)
(xiIn)
James T. Monroe
346
ya mamma
ya matre
ya fatin
a fatin
HB, 43 (1975)
(IV, V, XXVI, XXXVI)
ya babibi
(XXV)
(xLVI)
(XLVI)
(XXIX,
ya mio amor
mio amore
qawmu
ya
qorazoni
ya
mio qorazon
mio qorazoni
ya rabb
ya raqic
ya 1-asmar
bon amar
bon
Abf 1-Qasim
bon
Abf 1-Ha.gag'
LIII)
(XLIV)
(XLVII)
(VI)
(x)
(xxviii)
(61)
(xxiv, xxxvIIm)
(LV)
(LVI)
(x)
(xxv)
(xxv)
(xxx)
(xx)
(XIV)
(xxxvii)
(xxxII)
(xxv)
(XLI)
(61)
348
James T. Monroe
HB, 43 (1975)
were not those of classical Arabic prosody, but instead, the flexible
principles of popular poetry (a tradition intimately connected
with singing). As early as the mid-ninth century Alvarus of
C6rdoba denounced the indecent songs with which Muslims insulted Mozarabic priests whenever the latter appeared in public,
declaring: "Sacerdotes Dei [. . .], improperioso et infami nomine
derogantes, vulgali [sic] proverbio, et cantico inhonesto sugillant." 17
It is thus highly likely that at least some, if not all, of the hargas
are a reflection of a Christian poetic style that existed at that
time. Certainly, the tradition could not have been invented by
the Arabs, because, as recent investigations have shown, the
prosody of the Romance hargas closely parallels that of Hispanic
popular poetry.18
The formulas in the hargas are remarkably similar to those
found in Galician and Old French poems, as Margit Frenk Alatorre
and Criado de Val have shown,19 and the Castilian villancicos,
though relatively late, exhibit parallel formulaic features. The
question ke fareyo? is found in all four traditions, and is often
associated in rhyme position with other elements common to them,
such as the verbs morireyo and bibreyo:
MOZARABIC:
Gar ke fareyo
komo bibreyo
este al-habib egbero bor 61morireyo.
OLDFRENCH:
(XLII)
O! que ferai?
D'amer mourrai.
Ja n'en vivrai.20
p. 649.
de quien yo me enamore
no me quiere, ,que fare?24
Mas triste yo, ,que hare?,
que yo, que no s6 nadar,
jmorire,morire!25
There are many other formulaic parallels between the four
Romance groups here considered. These have been classified by
the scholars mentioned above, and more recently in a masterly
study by Martha Schaffer.6 Thus, there is no reason to belabor
the point. Instead, it can be inferred that four poetic traditions
in four languages spoken by four peoples closely related in space,
time, and culture, which exhibit so many thematic and formulaic
correspondences, as well as a common stress-syllabic prosody, can
only have resulted from a common source. This source could have
been either Vulgar Latin or one of the four Romance languages,
but the evidence of the Mozarabic hargas, which are the earliest
documented texts in the group, points in the direction of Vulgar
Latin because they employ archaic forms such as fareyo (C.L.
FACERE HABEO > V.L. fare ayo), tibe (L. TIBI), mibe (C.L. MIHI
> V.L. mibi).27 This observation leads to three plausible if hyM. Alin, El cancionero,No. 697,p. 650.
M. Alin, El cancionero,No. 36, p. 322.
25 J. M.
Alin, El cancionero,No. 388, p. 536. Medieval Italian folk poetry
is not well known. Nevertheless, a woman's lament over a knight gone off
to the Crusades is preserved in a learned poem by Rinaldo d'Aquino of the
Sicilian School (xiiith cent.). The lady echoes the formula quoted above,
exclaiming:
23 J.
24J.
HB, 43 (1975)
James T. Monroe
350
pothetical conclusions:
Virginemeripuitfatus malus.
Destituisti, iutilia mea,
miseram mammamtuam!
William Beare, Latin Verse and European Song: A Study in Accent and Rhythm
(London, 1957), p. 178. Mamma in Classical Latin meant "breast" hence
the above usage with the meaning "mother" is colloquial and popular. Note
the formulaic nature of the expression manzmam tuam.