Medieval Spanish Lyric Poetry: Jarchas, Courtly and Popular Verse

Jarchas

In 1948, short poems written in the Mozarabic dialect were discovered, mixing Arabic and Hebrew words. The jarxa was the final strophic composition of an extensive amorous poem called the moaxaja. Each final stanza of the poem included a chorus in the Mozarabic dialect.

Structure and Content

Its structure is very simple, and the poems are short, utilizing parallelistic lines. Its contents often revolve around the pain of a friend or loved one, which the maiden expresses to her mother or sister. Expressive resources are equally simple, featuring many questions and the vocative mood.

Castilian Popular Lyric

While no texts were kept prior to the fifteenth century, there is no doubt they existed. The most important collected works are known as cancioneros, such as the Songs of the Palace, the Columbian, and the Upsala.

Themes and Forms

The issues are similar to the jarxas and cantigas. Love occupies the greatest number of compositions and is present in all types: the joy of possession and the pain of loss. The preferred form is the villancico, which is related to the Hispano-Arabic zejel in its metric structure and to the jarxas and cantigas de amigo in its content. It consists of a chorus of 2-4 lines and a foot or stanza of 6 lines that allow for a new step back to the chorus.

The Courtly Lyric

The courtly lyric is a literary art developed during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. It was preserved in songbooks that gathered the production of various poets. The most important are the Cancionero de Baena, the Cancionero de Estúñiga, and the Cancionero General by Hernando del Castillo.

Influences and Evolution

Cultured poetry reveals a strong Provençal troubadour influence, featuring short lyrical songs. Its themes reflect courtly love or satire. As the century moves on, Italian influence is noted through the imitation of Dante and Petrarch, as well as classical Latin literature. This influence led to didactic and doctrinal poetry.

Satire and the Romance

Courtly poetry should not overlook the importance of satirical poetry with strong social content. The romance (ballad) occupies a prominent place since the fourteenth century. Traditional ballads were anonymous, transmitted orally, and composed for singing, known as the Romancero viejo. By the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, writers composed many works in imitation of the traditional ones, known as the Romancero nuevo. These have a known author and are no longer subject to variations in oral transmission.

Romance Structure

The romance is a poem composed of 8-syllable verses with assonant rhyme in the even verses, leaving the odd verses loose. The most important are grouped into: historical, epic, and novelesque. Notable authors include Lope de Vega, Góngora, and Quevedo.