A Comparative Study of Medieval Lyric Poetry: From Provençal Troubadours to Castilian Cancioneros

Posted on Sep 21, 2024 in Latin

Medieval Lyric Poetry: A Comparative Overview

Provençal Lyric Poetry (12th-13th Centuries)

Originating in 12th-century Provence, troubadour poetry reached Catalonia in the 13th century, leaving behind a legacy of nearly 100 songbooks. This lyric poetry, crafted by known authors, employed a refined and standardized language. Troubadours, often accompanied by minstrels (juglares), composed and performed their works, adhering to strict rules of versification and rhyme.

Types of Provençal Poetry

Two primary genres emerged:

  • Cansos (Love Songs): Reflecting feudal ideology, cansos explored the themes of courtly love, chivalry, and the devotion of a male lover to a typically unattainable lady.
  • Sirventes (Political/Satirical Songs): Used to express anger, criticism, personal attacks, or engage in literary and moral debates.

The Concept of Courtly Love

Courtly love, a central theme in cansos, emphasized courtesy and idealized love as a form of service to a lady considered superior. The male lover progressed through four stages:

  1. Feñedor (Hesitant Admirer): Unable to express his feelings.
  2. Precador (Supplicant): Declares his love for the lady.
  3. Connoisseur (Accepted Lover): His love is acknowledged.
  4. Drude (Paramour): Becomes her lover.

Galician-Portuguese Lyric Poetry

This tradition, influenced by Provençal poetry brought by pilgrims to Santiago de Compostela, is divided into three main categories:

  • Cantigas de Amor (Love Songs): Inheriting themes and lexicon from Provençal cansos, these songs depict love’s joys transforming into sadness and torment, often equating love with death. Unlike Provençal counterparts, the setting is often urban or palatial, employing complex metrics and strophic structures.
  • Cantigas de Amigo (Songs of a Female Lover): Here, a female voice expresses her longing for a lover, often confiding in her mother, sister, or friends. Nature plays a significant role, and the language is more colloquial compared to cantigas de amor. Parallelism is a key stylistic feature.
  • Cantigas de Escarnio e Maldizer (Songs of Scorn and Slander): These satirical compositions mocked individuals or groups, often using direct and harsh language.

Cantigas de Santa Maria

This collection of religious songs, attributed to King Alfonso X of Castile (Alfonso the Wise), features verses ranging from 2 to 24 syllables, showcasing Alexandrine meter.

Arabic and Hebrew Lyric Poetry in Al-Andalus (10th-11th Centuries)

Two primary forms flourished in Muslim-ruled Spain:

  • Moaxaja: Written in classical Arabic, often incorporating Hebrew in later stanzas known as jarchas. Love, including homosexual love, was a central theme, often set in urban environments with references to local flora and fauna.
  • Zejel: Composed in colloquial Arabic, lacking the jarcha, and also focusing on themes of love.

Early Popular Lyric Poetry

Jarcha

These short, often four-line poems, typically in colloquial Arabic or Hebrew, served as the final stanzas of moaxajas. Characterized by simplicity and directness, they often depicted a young lover expressing their feelings to a confidante (mother, sister, or friend). The use of the term “Habib” (beloved) was a distinctive feature.

Villancicos

Originating in Castile, these short poems, often with a love theme, shared similarities with jarchas and cantigas de amigo. A girl laments her love situation, often in a rural setting where water imagery is prominent. Villancicos frequently employed simple language, verbs of motion, diminutives, repetitions, and parallelism.

Cancionero Poetry (Early 15th Century)

This period saw the rise of songbooks (cancioneros) containing two main types of compositions:

  • Cantigas: Short poems intended for singing, often with a fixed form and a love theme. They typically consisted of a cabeza (introduction) and a vuelta (refrain).
  • Decires: Longer compositions, either lyrical or narrative, composed of an undefined number of stanzas and meant to be read. By the mid-15th century, they were often referred to as coplas (couplets).

Amorous Poetry

Love remained a dominant theme, drawing heavily on the lexicon and ideology of courtly love. The poetry expressed the subjugation of the lover to the lady, often using metaphors of war and religion. Descriptions of the lady often focused on her eyes and heart, sometimes incorporating elements of eroticism.

Moral and Religious Poetry

Reflecting the social and political instability of the 15th century, this poetry criticized societal ills, condemned worldly excesses, and advocated for stoicism. Religious poetry addressed corruption, praised the Virgin Mary, and, by the late 15th century, increasingly focused on the figure of Christ.

Major Poets of the 15th Century

Marques de Santillana (Íñigo López de Mendoza)

A prominent figure in the first half of the 15th century, he cultivated various genres, including:

  • Moral Poetry: Notable works include “Proverbios” (Proverbs) and “Diálogo de Bias contra Fortuna” (Dialogue of Bias against Fortune).
  • Political and Allegorical Narrative
  • Serranillas: These poems depicted encounters between a knight and a shepherdess, contrasting characters from different social classes.

Juan de Mena

Known for his love poetry and intellectual, artful style, his most famous work is “Laberinto de Fortuna” (Labyrinth of Fortune), dedicated to King Juan II. This lengthy poem employed complex syntax, elaborate vocabulary, and dodecasyllabic verse.

Jorge Manrique

Considered the greatest Castilian lyric poet of the 15th century, he wrote love poetry and burlesque verse. However, his masterpiece is the elegy “Coplas a la Muerte de su Padre” (Verses on the Death of His Father).

Verses on the Death of His Father

This elegy, consisting of 40 stanzas in coplas manriqueñas (Manriquean couplets), reflects on life, death, and the legacy of his father, Don Rodrigo Manrique. The poem is divided into two parts: the first 24 stanzas offer general reflections on life and death, while the remaining 16 stanzas praise Don Rodrigo’s life and accomplishments.

Manriqueño Style

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