El Cid & Book of Good Love: Analysis, Authorship, and Key Themes
El Cid: Text, Author, and Date
The Poem of the Cid consists of 3730 verses. The beginning of the poem is unknown due to a missing first folio of the manuscript. Several hypotheses exist regarding its authorship and dating. Some believe the text, after recasts, dates to around 1140 and is the work of two or more minstrels. Others suggest the text’s unity points to a single author. The date is likely the end of the twelfth century or early thirteenth century.
Metrics, Language, and Style
The poem’s verses are grouped into runs and assonant monorhymes. The lines are irregular and divided into two hemistiches, most commonly with 7, 8, or 6 syllables. The language emphasizes clarity, specificity, and simplicity. Appositions and epic epithets serve to magnify the heroes. Frequent parallels aid minstrels in memorization. The lexicon includes archaisms, technical terms, Arabic words, and Aragonese vernacularisms, suggesting a border area origin.
Structure and Content
The poem is divided into three parts: Song of Exile, Song of Weddings, and the Shame of Corpes. The internal structure is marked by the twin processes of loss and recovery of the Cid’s honor. Content analysis reveals three levels:
- Political: Castilla vs. Leon. El Cid faces the king, and his enemies are nobles of Leon origin.
- Socioeconomic: Ideals of legal equality and social mobility, typical of the frontier spirit. The poem reflects the Cid’s bellicose lifestyle.
- Individual: The Cid acts as an archetypal epic hero, with a progressive glorification. The exaltation of the Cid contrasts with the ridicule of lofty nobility.
Book of Good Love: Text, Author, Date, and Title
The Book of Good Love is preserved in three manuscript copies and several fragments. The author identifies himself as Juan Ruiz, Archpriest of Hita. The manuscripts contain two dates of composition: 1330 and 1343. None of the manuscripts are titled.
Metrics, Language, and Style
It is a long poem of over 1700 stanzas (about 7000 verses), mostly written in rib st. Hemistiches of 8 syllables abound, alongside the popular rhythm of romance, compared to the mandatory seven syllables. Rhetorical devices are common, both from tradition and vernacular. Proverbs, idioms, and exclamations are used. A mocking tone is characteristic, with irony, parody, and caricature as basic features.
Structure and Content
The book comprises heterogeneous materials, quilted by the narrative from the first person: a prose preface stating the work’s intention; a series of affairs with women of different conditions (a nun, a blackberry picker, etc.); a collection of 32 fables and stories with didactic intent; episodes adapted from medieval Latin texts; moral or satirical asides, satires, and parodies; allegorical passages; and a group of lyrical compositions and minstrel pieces: religious poems, serranillas, student songs, songs of the blind…
Arab influence is noted. Medieval Christian culture is also apparent. Two recurring themes are love and death. Everything is subject to love, presented as a compelling force of nature. Sexuality, eroticism, and the pleasing design of beings and things are embodied in the characters. Death is the opposite force of love and life, destroying beauty, pleasure, and all human relationships.