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Recent Theories about the Meter of the “Cid”
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
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By a remarkable coincidence, three scholars of different nationalities, working, one may suppose, in entire independence, have almost simultaneously declared against the existence in Spanish of any so-called “ametric versification.” G. J. Geers of Holland asserts (p. 179) that the distinction between “poesía amétrica” and “poesía ritmica acentual” is “absolutamente voluntariosa.” Prof. Juan Cano of Toronto uses almost identical language: “No estamos de acuerdo con el Sr. Ureña en distinguir entre la poesía amétrica y la ritmica; creemos que toda la poesía es rítmica.” Professor Cano does not mention the Poema del Cid specifically, but because he is occupied with later verse; it is clear that his conception of Spanish meter requires him to find regularity of rhythm in the Cid, since it is neither ametric nor syllabic. And Prof. W. E. Leonard of Wisconsin, skilled metrist and distinguished poet, has devoted an article in English and a longer one in Spanish to showing, or attempting to show, that the Poema del Cid was written in accentual or rhythmic verse. Professor Leonard did not, like the other two, make an assertion covering all Spanish verse, but the Cid is, of course, the chief exemplar of “ametric” verse; if it is to be removed from that category, the other alleged cases can certainly be made to follow it.
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References
1 “Algo sobre versificación española,” Neophilologus xv (1929–30), 178–183.
2 “La importancia relativa del acento y de la sílaba en la versificación española,” Romanic Review, xxii (1931), 223–233. See p. 230, note 25.
3 Pedro Henríquez Ureña, La versificación irregular en la poesía castellana (Madrid, 1920).—Most of Ureña's book is devoted to an analysis of rhythmic or accentual verse. He supports R. Menéndez Pidal in the “irregular” theory for the Cid, but gives little space to it. See below, p. 969.
4 “The Recovery of the Metre of the ‘Cid’,” PMLA xlvi (1931), 289–306.
5 “La métrica del Cid,” Revista de Archivos, xxxii (1928), 334–352; xxxiv (1930), 16–40; xxxv (1931), 195–210, 302–328, 401–421.
6 “The only scansion that solves the Cid-metre must be a scansion without serious emendations. … The imperfect lines do not exceed, for my ear, fifty at most,” PMLA, xlvi (1931), 297.
7 Prof. E. C. Hills wrote in 1927 (Homenaje a Bonilla, i, 479, note 1): “It is doubtful that the Cid has a complicated accentual metre such as Sievers suggests for Old English narrative poems, but it would be an interesting experiment if some one who has studied thoroughly the old Teutonic metres in narrative verses would make a more careful study of the position of the syllabic stresses within the hemistichs of the verses of the Cid, and attempt to find a system for their recurrence. I suspect that the work would not give any positive result, but it might at least settle the question once for all.”—Professor Leonard's assumption that the Old Spanish epic is descended from Visigothic heroic lays will be considered below (p. 976).
8 iv (Paris, 1913), p. 473.
9 PMLA, loc. cit., p. 293.
10 Another confession: Professor Leonard presents, as a parallel case, a poem of his own' The Pied Piper, with his own scansion of it in Rev. Arch., xxxv (1931), 201–202. Obviously he is right in that: but I think I should never have scanned it in quite the same way.
11 The most important references for Menéndez Pidal's statement of the case are Cantar, loc. cit.; Rev. Filol. Esp. iii (1916), 341–342; Rev. Filol. Esp. iv (1917), 123; Bull. Hisp. xx (1918), 209–211; Poesia juglaresca y juglares (Madrid, 1924), p. 343.
12 Exception must be made for Cejador and Lang. Of the former, “El Cantar de Mio Cid y la Epopeya castellana,” Rev. Hisp. xlix (1920), 1–311. Of the latter, “Contributions to the Restoration of the Poema del Cid,” Rev. Hisp. lxvi (1926), 1–509: and “The Metrical Forms of the Poem of the Cid,” in PMLA, xlii (1927), 523–603.
13 Eerrigs Archiv, viii (1851), 434.—The passage is quoted in full by Leonard, Rev. Arch., xxxv (1931), 202, n. 1. Milá (De la poesía heroico-popular castellana, p. 397, n. 4) objected that in actuality the number of strong accents in each half-line varies so much that the accentual theory could be sustained only by arbitrary “reading in” on the part of the reciter. Such “reading in” is exactly what Professor Leonard advocates. Restori, in Propugnatore, xx: 1 (1887), 121, rejected Delius's idea because of the wide divergence in length between hemistichs; Menéndez Pidal agrees (Cantar, i, 78).
14 “Zur Kritik des Cantar de Mio Cid,” Zt. für rom. Philol., xli (1921–22), 57–69.
15 Cf. G. R. Stewart, Jr., The Technique of English Verse (New York, 1930), ch. xi, “Dipodic Verse.”
16 Cf. above, note 13, end.
17 Bull. Hisp. xx (1918), p. 211: “vemos hoy que novísimas corrientes de técnica literaria muy refinada coinciden en parte con el pensamiento de aquellos antiguos juglares que no quisieron coartar el libre desenvolvimiento de su inspiración con una regularidad de forma y de detalle que pudiera oponerse a la más ingenua y honda impresión del conjunto.”
18 Versificación irregular, p. 3.
19 These are, according to Menéndez Pidal: Poema del Cid, Roncesvalles, Crónica rimada, Razón de amor, Santa Maria Egipciaca, Tres Reys d'Orient, Elena y Maria, and the reconstructed Infantes de Lara.
20 For clear definitions see the admirable monograph of M. M. Dondo, Vers Libre, a Logical Development of French Verse (Paris, 1922), esp. pp. 80–81; and E. C. Hills, “Meter in Anglo-American Free Verse,” in Univ. Calif. Chronicle (July, 1924), 299–310.—I am indebted to Professor Dondo for several points in the preparation of this paper.
21 Leyes de la versificación castellana, 2nd ed. (La Paz, 1919), p. 26: “Los versos que cuentan dos o más sílabas hasta ocho, no necesitan más acento rítmico que el de la penúltima.” Pp. 30–31: “todos los versos conocidos hasta el presente … pueden dividirse en dos grandes grupos: el de los que sólo necesitan un acento intenso y el de los que necesitan dos o más. Los primeros están formados por una o más sílabas, hasta ocho y aun hasta nueve, incluyendo el Ilamado octosílabo esdrújulo en la métrica vulgar; los segundos por nueve o más sílabas.”—I am aware, of course, that not all Spanish metrists assent to this statement. Ed. Benot, however, the most extensive, while giving no such general rule as Jaimes Freyre, states that the octosyllable has but one “acento constituyente,” which is his term for a prosodic accent. See Prosodia castellana, iii (Madrid, n.d.), p. 56.
22 Prof. F. O. Reed, in “The Calderonian Octosyllabic,” Univ. of Wisconsin Studies, No. 20 (1924), pp. 73–98, attempted to prove the contrary. I am unable to follow him. He started from an assumption of his own: “That a metrical unit of eight syllables is not easily sensed by the ear unless subjected to subdivision, I hold to be self-evident” (p. 74). Few competent Spaniards, I believe, would assent.
23 Hanssen, alluding to these words, remarked: “indican con claridad que Menéndez cree que los cantares de gesta no se cantaban propiamente, sino que se recitaban” (Rev. Dial. Romane, i (1909), 459); and “no se cantaban propiamente, sino que se acompañaban de un simple tornilo de recitado” (ibid., p. 463). He found no alternative, if the text is not to be emended, to such a recitative.
24 “Podemos considerar esa alternativa gradual de decrecimiento y aumento como ley que rige la poesía amétrica de los juglares.” See Rev. Filol. Esp. i (1914), 94–95, and iv (1917), 124–131.
25 Romanic Review, ix (1918), 348–349.
26 I do not regard the order of alternation—i.e., the absolutely regular swing between greater and less—as especially significant. Such would be the perfect result of chance, in an infinite number of cases, but one could not expect to find it perfect in any one poem. Nor can it matter whether the first swing in the series is up or down. Cf. Rev. Filol. Esp. i, 94–95.
27 On it see Amador de los Ríos, Hist. crít. ii (Madrid, 1862), 317–318; Fr. Hanssen, in Rev. Dial. Romane i (1909), 455–458.
28 Chronique rimée des derniers rois de Tolède, ed. P. J. Tailhan (Paris, 1885). Of its 1909 lines, only 200 were measured.—Latin and English lines are counted modo gallico, stopping with the last accent. The Latin line is, to be sure, often open to various interpretations in counting.
29 Ed. E. Du Méril, in Poésies populaires latines du moyen-âge (Paris, 1847), pp. 61–70.—The Libellus de corona Virginis (Migne, Patrologia latina, v. 96, Paris, 1862, pp. 283–318) was rightly cited by Hanssen as a fine example of rimed prose, but it does not lend itself well to analysis. Its usual pattern consists of a long introductory phrase without rime, followed by many short riming phrases or leonine lines. The editor thought this work to be of the twelfth century, Hanssen, of the eleventh.
30 “It may be urged that the author of the Cid-epic, though well versed in the art of strict metrical composition, may have preferred to resort to some such free form as the rhymed prose so popular in medieval Latin literature. That might well be.” Rev. Hisp., lxvi (1926), 8.
31 Most medieval Latin non-quantitative verse is both accentual and syllabic, i.e., the feet are all equal and regular in length. On possible Latin origins of the Spanish octosyllable, see Menéndez Pelayo, Antología de poetas liricos cast., xi (1903), 123–127.
32 Hanssen saw the possibility of a contamination of French epic and rimed prose, but, not knowing the “target” nature of the Cid lines, did not realize how they differ from those of rimed prose: “podríamos explicar la versificación irregular del Poema del Cid de la manera siguiente. Deseando dar a sus cantares épicos un carâcter nacional y no encontrando otros modelos, los juglares que imitaban las Chansons de Geste de los franceses conservaban la forma exterior de las estrofas monorrimas, pero empleaban, en lugar de los versos alejandrinos y decasílabos de sus vecinos, versos libres a imitación de la prosa rimada. Esa estaba de moda en obras latinas.” Rev. Dial. Romane, i (1909), 457.
33 The count is taken from R. Foulché-Delbosc's Étude sur le Laberinto de Juan de Mena, as translated by Bonilla, Juan de Mena y el “Arte Mayor” (Madrid, 1903).
34 This poem is written in the same meter as that seen by Professor Leonard in the Poema del Cid.
35 The former, in Propugnatore xx: 1, 152–155. The latter, in Rev. Dial. Romane i (1909), 454–463.
36 E. Farai, Les jongleurs en France au moyen âge (Paris, 1910), p. 59.
37 “H. Suchier, Der musikalische Vortrag der Chansons de geste,” in Zt. Rom. Philol., xix (1895), 370–374.
38 Obras completas viii (Santiago de Chile, 1885), 53. Bello's dictum was echoed by Menéndez y Pelayo, Antol. de poetas líricos cast. xi (1903), 110, n. 2: “Tiénese por cierto que los juglares en sus modulaciones procuraban remedar el canto gregoriano.” He did not name Bello.
39 They are two eighteenth century French writers. Their works are rare, and as Bello did not quote their words, I will do so. The Abbé Lebeuf, in Dissertations sur l'histoire ecclésiastique el civile de Paris, ii (Paris, 1741), pp. 120–121, speaks of the “cantiques vulgaires ou chansons Françoises du XII. & XIII. siècle, qui se trouvent à Paris dans quelques Bibliothèques. Elles n’étoient que comme du chant Gregorien, & pour marque de cela, il y en a qui sont notées du septième mode qui est le plus ingrat de tous pour le doux & le tendre, & qui n'a que la gravité pour partage.” Jean Benjamin de La Borde in his Essai sur la musique, ii (Paris, 1780), 146, note c, discussing French “chansons (ou romances)” of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, states that “presque tous ces Poëtes composaient les aires de leurs chansons, mais ces airs n’étaient autre chose que du chant Grégorien, & même c’était souvent tout simplement les chants de l’Église qu'ils parodiaient. A la fin d'un grand nombre de leurs chansons, on trouve les premiers mots de l'hymne, dont l'air est celui de la chanson.” It is evident that both these authors were referring to lyrics, not epics.
40 Giornale storico, xxxii (1898), 22. Quoted by Menéndez y Pelayo, op. cit. xi, 122–123.
41 The arguments made against the Visigothic theory by Restori in Propugnatore xx: 1 (1887), 122, Lang in Romanic Review viii (1917), 259–260, and Bédier in Légendes épiques, iv (1913), 339–344 still seem to me cogent. Cf. S. G. Morley, Spanish Ballad Problems, Univ. Calif. Publ. in Mod. Philol., xiii (1925), 224, n. 32. On the other hand, Arnald Steiger has, without new evidence, rather recently turned a longing look in the direction of the Visigoths. See his “Vom Ursprung des spanischen Epos,” in Festschrift Louis Gauchat (Aarau, 1926), pp. 271–282. And Menéndez Pidal has, for the first time since 1910, when he propounded the theory, indicated a continuing interest in it. See Humanidades xxi (1930), 11.
42 Étude sur le rôle de l'accent latin dans la langue française (Paris-Leipzig, 1862), p. 108.—It goes without saying that Gaston Paris had in mind only the simple trochaic and dactylic rhythms, not a system based on omitted stresses, etc.
43 For the earlier bibliography of the 29-line poem, see Foerster-Koschwitz, Altfranzösisches Übungsbuch, 6th ed. (Leipzig, 1921), pp. 47–50. Later references are given by S. Eringa, “La versification de la Sainte Eulalie,” Neophilologus xi (1925), 1–8. The most elaborate discussion is that of M. Enneccerus, Versbau und gesanglicher Vortrag des ältesten französischen Liedes (Frankfurt, 1901).
44 The divergence of opinion is truly extraordinary. Disagreement reigns as to whether the accompanying Latin text was the model for the French (Suchier et al.) or vice versa (Bartsch); and even as to the correct accentuation of the name Eulalia.
45 I follow the syllable-division of Gaston Paris, which differs somewhat from those of Enneccerus and Eringa.
46 Karl Bartsch, Die lateinischen Sequenzen des Mittelalters (Rostock, 1868), p. 167. The Notkerian sequence has a long bibliography. Most pertinent are this work of Bartsch, various writings and collections of John Mason Neale, Rémy de Gourmont, Le latin mystique (Paris, 1922), chapters vii, viii, x, and Enneccerus, op. cit.
47 The great variety of the sequences makes it impracticable, within the scope of this article, to analyze them syllabically.
48 “The following sequence [Sancii Spiritus adsit nobis gratia, by Notker] was in use all over Europe: even in those countries (like Italy and Spain) which usually rejected sequences.” J. M. Neale, Mediaeval Hymns and Sequences, 3rd ed. (London, 1867), p. 31.
49 A quantitative Latin line would also yield a “target” count, with narrow limits, but of that there is no question in the Spanish verse under consideration.
50 “Si la versificación del Poema es tal cual la presenta el manuscrito, no merece otro nombre que el de prosa rimada.” Rev. Dial. Romane i (1909), 455.
51 “Un vivo sentido dramático ayuda inmensamente a hacer una escanción correcta,” remarked Leonard in Rev. Arch., xxxv (1931), 195; otherwise he did not touch this point.
52 According to Hanssen, it proves nothing. Referring to similar arguments of Da. Carolina Michaëlis de Vasconcellos, he remarked, “Temo que la distinguida autora haya cafdo en un anacronismo. Los fenómenos que ha observado y que le sirven de base para su hipótesis son modernos y no son particulares de la ritmica peninsular.” Rev. Dial. Romane, i (1909), 460.
53 “On the Carmen de morte Sanctii Regis,” Bull. Hisp., xxx (1928), 204–219. His study adds notably, too, to the danger of discerning an epical narrative in the vulgar tongue under every novelesque tale about an historical or legendary personage. Cf. S. G. Morley, Spanish Ballad Problems, pp. 220–221.
54 Cf. Georges Cirot, in Bull. Hisp., xi (1909), 263.