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The chronicle texts of the legend of the Infantes de Lara

1976; Liverpool University Press; Volume: 53; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/1475382762000353101

1469-3550

John G. Cummins,

Comparative Literary Analysis and Criticism

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image sizeBSS Subject Index: CHRONICLESEPICSIETE INFANTES DE LARA, LOSTEXT/TEXTUALITY/INTERTEXTUALITY Notes 1. For the reconstructed poetic text, with the chronicle sources, see R. Menéndez Pidal, Reliquias de la poesía épica española (Madrid 1951), 199–236. The relevant chronicle passages are also printed in R. Menéndez Pidal, La leyenda de los Infantes de Lara, third edition (Madrid 1971), 249–334. In subsequent references these titles are abbreviated to Reliquias and Infantes. I also use the abbreviations 1344 = Crónica de 1344; ITCG = Interpolación de la Tercera Crónica General; PCG = Primera Crónica General. 2. A further objection to the reconstruction is that it takes no account of the probability that the version in the M manuscript of 1344 has not been simply prosified, but also translated into and out of Portuguese. For the relationships of the various versions of 1344, see the introductions to L. F. Lindley Cintra, Crónica Geral de Espanha de 1344, in the series Fontes Narrativas da História Portuguesa (Lisbon 1951), and D. Catalán and M. Soledad de Andrés, Crónica General de España de 1344, in the series Fuentes Cronísticas de la Historia de España (Madrid 1971). The prosified version of the legend is included in full in the surviving Portuguese texts (see Lindley Cintra, Crónica Geral …, III, 122–71, for a reconstruction of *X, the second Portuguese version of around 1400), and a comparison of the Portuguese and Castilian versions shows that the prosified epic must have formed part of the earliest version of the chronicle (*Y, also in Portuguese), and cannot have been introduced only in the earliest Castilian version (*N) or the principal Castilian manuscript surviving (M, used by Menéndez Pidal in Infantes and Reliquias). 3. See Reliquias, Ixxii–iii, 199. For the relevant passage of PCG, see Reliquias, 181–98; Infantes, 207–43. The text of PCG used in Infantes is MS E2 (i.e. the royal version), with variants from other MSS. The version of PCG in Reliquias is a reconstruction of the texto vulgar, based on MS T, with variants from MSS G, Z and Y. For the nomenclature and relationship of the MSS of PCG, see D. Catalán, De Alfonso X al Conde de Barcelos (Madrid 1962), 19–93, 440–44. 4. T. A. Lathrop, The Legend of the Siete Infantes de Lara (‘Refundición de la crónica de 1344’ version) (Chapel Hill 1971). 5. E. von Richthofen, ‘Nuevas reconstrucciones de la “Gesta de los Infantes de Lara” ’, in his Tradicionalismo épico-novelesco (Barcelona 1972), 55–65. 6. In all quotations in this and subsequent tables, possible epic lines and hemistichs are italicized, and possible survivals of assonance are in bold type. 7. See, in the parallel texts in Reliquias, 199–236, the lines numbered 61, 64, 67, 71–72, 81–82, 114, 127, 135, 161, 167, 177, 358, 366, 518, 542, etc. 8. The most notable non-PCG elements in ITCG in this early part are that Almanzor refuses to speak to Gonzalo Gustioz on his arrival in Córdoba (Infantes, 316) (not in 1344), and that the Moorish girl of the PCG account becomes Almanzor's sister (Infantes, 316) (not at this stage in 1344) and is called Zenla (not in 1344). The kinship helps to explain Almanzor's subsequent affection for Mudarra. The most notable non-PCG feature of the early part of the 1344 account is the presence of Alicante and Barrasin as leaders of the Moorish army, in addition to the Viara and Galve of the PCG (Infantes, 228, 233, 272–75). For a tabular comparison of the early parts of the PCG and 1344 accounts, see Lathrop, The Legend …, 37–38. 9. In the following table names are abbreviated as follows: R.V.=Ruy Velázquez; G.G.=Gonzalo Gustioz; M.=Mudarra; A.=Almanzor; G.F.=Garcí Fernández. Four dots(…) in the second or third column signify the presence of material already detailed in the column immediately to the left. 10. A. Monteverdi, ‘Il cantare degli Infanti di Salas’, Studi Medievali, VII (1934), 113–50, argues that the condensation procedure of PCG accounts for all the differences between PCG and 1344, and that the idea of a fourteenth-century refundición is therefore unnecessary. 11. ‘E ellos andando asi buscando su açor, vieron venir a don Mudarra’ (Infantes, 306) ; compare ITCG : ‘Ellos buscando el açor, Mudarra asomava’ (Infantes, 329). Notice too the similarity of their skills at the tablado, Gonzalo's demonstrated at the wedding and mentioned in the llanto (Infantes, 251, 283), Mudarra's mentioned in the account of his boyhood (Infantes, 290). The link between the two is preserved and strengthened in a later version of the legend prosified by the Crónica General Toledana, in which Mudarra takes the name Gonzalo at his symbolic re-birth and baptism, and is referred to scornfully by Ruy Velázquez as Gonzalvillo (see Infantes, 341–42, 344; Lathrop, The Legend …, 71). 12. The sequence of the story in PCG and ITCG goes some way towards disproving Monteverdi's claim that there is no need to suggest the existence of a fourteenth-century refundición, and that the differences in content between PCG and 1344 can be explained by the greater condensation and selectivity of PCG (see above, n. 10). This would mean that the full epic behind 1344 was also prosified by PCG and ITCG, whose authors, acting independently at a remove of over a century from one another, selected and rejected almost exactly the same elements. 13. ITCG diverges from PCG in (a) the fact that the Mooress is Almanzor's sister (a link with 1344); (b) her initial refusal to comfort Gonzalo Gustioz (a link with 1344) ; (c) the mention of ‘algunos … que me desonrran e me llaman fi de nadie’ in the scene in which Mudarra learns about his father (a partial link with 1344) ; (d) the Mooress's name Zenla (in neither PCG nor 1344) ; (e) the transposition of Mudarra's conversation with his knights (not present in 1344) to after his leave-taking. Some of these, given the extreme condensation evident in PCG, may have been present in the epic text behind PCG, or may have resulted from piecemeal alteration of that epic before the fourteenth-century refundición. One could interpret (c), for instance, as an embryo which is subsequently developed into the episode of the draught-board quarrel in 1344 (though Menéndez Pidal would no doubt have argued that it is a fleeting allusion to that episode). 14. See Infantes, 242, 326, and compare the 1344 account, Infantes, 295–302. 15. These PCG extracts are quoted from Infantes, as are the variants from other PCG manuscripts. References to the latter preserve Menéndez Pidal's abbreviations. Only the variants possibly affecting the restoration of versification are given. 16. For estar in final position, compare ‘Tres reyes veo de moros, derredor de mí estar’ (Cantar de Mio Cid, edited by R. Menéndez Pidal, second edition, 3 vols. (Madrid 1944–46), III, 1050, line 637). 17. Y, T, Z, A: ‘todos’ omitted. 18. I: ‘alii'omitted. 19. T, Z: ‘que nolfiziessen ningún mal’; Y: ‘que noi fiziesse ninguno mal’. 20. Y, T, Z : ‘de aver en vos pesar’. 21. Y: ‘de me Conortar’. 22. Y, T, G, Z: ‘non di por ende nada quanto que me yo matasse’. 23. I: ‘nunca los podras cobrar’. 24. Z: ‘este mal tan grande que te vino’. 25. Y: ‘darte de lo mio’. 26. Y, T, G, Z : ‘pora tu yda’ omitted. 27. Y, T, G, Z continue ‘ca mucho ha que te non vi[d]o’. 28. Y, T, G, Z: ‘que vos faga algun serviçio’. 29. Y, T, Z : ‘de vos prenyada’. 30. Y, T, Z : ‘ende’ omitted. 31. Y, T, Z: ‘a Castiella’ omitted. 32. Y, T, Z: ‘de mi’ omitted. 33. Compare ‘fablós con los sos en su poridad’ (Cantar de Mio Cid, III, 1134, line 2899). 34. Y, T, Z: ‘E Almançor diol luego dos amas quel criassen’. 35. Y, T, Z: ‘pusiéronle’. 36. Y, G: ‘sopo esto’. 37. Y, T, C, G: ‘un golpe tan grant/grande’. 38. These signs, if accepted, undermine Monteverdi's point about versification: ‘Se assonanze ci fossero, e se fossero diverse da quelle che con tanta abbondanza risaltano nei capitou corrispondenti délia seconda Crónica general [=1344], allora si sarebbe lecito affermare che i due cronisti seguono due cantari distinti. Ma quest'argomento, il solo argomento veramente decisivo, manca’ (‘II cantare …’, 124–25). 39. We see a similar situation in the distribution of the twentieth-century oral versions of the ballad Gerineldos, in some areas still short and preserving the Golden-Age ending, in others amplified with a more sensational ending or even by the appending of the ballad La boda estorbada (see R. Menéndez Pidal, D. Catalán and A. Galmés de Fuentes, Cómo vive un romance [Madrid 1954]).