Medieval Spanish Literature: Traditional, Popular, and Courtly Forms
Characteristics of Traditional, Popular, and Lyrical Poetry
Traditional, popular, and lyrical poetry were broadcast by minstrels (jarchas mozárabes, cantigas de amigo, and villancicos). Medieval traditional lyric poetry manifested itself spontaneously in Galician, Castilian, and Catalan Mozarabic. It was transmitted orally by diffusion.
Features:
- The theme is the confidences of a young woman in love, expressed to her mother, her sisters, her friends, or to the loved one, the sea, etc.
- Nature and the rural environment are of great importance.
- The songs adapt to two main metric structures: parallel structure and leixaprén, based on repeating verses, changing just one word, and the Castilian zéjelesca structure.
- Use of chorus and gloss.
Cultured Lyric
Compositions include love songs, derision, and curses in Galician.
Features:
- Provençal influence: it is the troubadours’ work, intended to be sung.
- The metric is regular, with constant rhyme.
- The main theme is courtly love; the lady is the lord, and the poet her vassal.
Jarchas
Four lines in which a female voice calls her lover and confesses her love to her confidante.
Cantigas
Written in Galician-Portuguese, they have a Provençal influence, explained by the pilgrimage to Galicia through the Way of Saint James.
- Cantigas de amigo (Friend Songs): Simple language; the poetic voice is a woman in love.
- Cantigas de amor (Love Songs): A gentleman laments the disdain of his beloved or her absence, also the rigors of content around courtly love.
- Cantigas de escarnio e maldizer (Songs of Derision and Curse): Satirical or mocking intention, characterized by the double meaning of words, ambiguities, and equivocations, while cursing specific persons.
Mester de Juglaría
Mester de Juglaría collects all the works that the minstrels relayed orally during the Middle Ages. They were in town after town, in exchange for coins, and entertained the population.
Cantar de Gesta
A set of epic stories in verse about the heroic deeds of a hero or a collective.
Mester de Clerecía
Characteristics:
- It is learned and cultured, unlike the popular and minstrel-like Mester de Juglaría.
- Known author, posterior in time.
- Works with didactic and religious themes.
- Moralizing intention.
- Use of written sources, such as the Bible.
- Use of cuaderna vía: four 14-syllable lines (Alexandrines) divided into two hemistiches of 7 syllables, with a single, consonant rhyme.
Mio Cid
Cantar de Mio Cid: Wedding exile. The Afrenta de Corpes (The Affront at Corpes) deals with the unjust exile of the Cid and the issue of private dishonor.
Gonzalo de Berceo
Milagros de Nuestra Señora (Miracles of Our Lady): Idealized nature serves as a resting place for the pilgrim and symbolizes the virtues and perfections of the Virgin. Twenty-five miracles performed by the Virgin in favor of persons who feel great devotion to her are recounted.
Alfonso X, “The Wise”
Alfonso X, “The Wise,” took care of promoting and personally leading the development of Castilian prose. In Alfonsine prose, the following stand out: Estoria de España (History of Spain), Las Siete Partidas (The Seven-Part Code), Libros del Saber de Astronomía (Books of Knowledge of Astronomy), and books on chess.
Don Juan Manuel
El Conde Lucanor (Count Lucanor) consists of five parts and two prologues, representing the same argumentative scheme: the medieval topic of teachings a wise elder transmits to a young, inexperienced man. The dissemination of this work in Castilian literature has been enormous. The tale “De lo que aconteció a un deán de Santiago con don Illán, el gran maestro de Toledo” inspired Quevedo. The fable of Samaniego, “The Magic Cloth,” served as inspiration for Cervantes.
Novels
Great adventures overseas, the conquest of love, and action around the controversial world of knights.
Chivalric Novels
El Caballero Zifar (The Knight Zifar).