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Bulletin of Hispanic Studies: To Cite This Article: John Gornall (2000) One Swallow Does Make A Summer: Assonance
Bulletin of Hispanic Studies: To Cite This Article: John Gornall (2000) One Swallow Does Make A Summer: Assonance
To cite this article: John Gornall (2000) One Swallow Does Make a Summer: Assonance
in Galician-Portuguese Cantigas, Bulletin of Hispanic Studies, 77:5, 397-406, DOI:
10.1080/00074900052389931
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BHS, LXXVII (2000)
JOHN GORNALL
Tattenhall, nr Chester
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2 Luciana Stegagno Picchio, ‘Le Poesie d’amore di Vidal, giudeo di Elvas’, Cultura
Neolatina, XXII (1962), 40–61 (p. 51). The two poems are Nos 265–66 (numbers converted
into Arabic numerals) in Cantigas d’amor dos trovadores galego-portugueses, ed. José
Joaquim Nunes (Coimbra: Imprensa da Universidade, 1932; rpt. Lisboa: Centro do Livro
Brasileiro, 1972). Citation is from Stegagno Picchio, ‘Le Poesie d’amore’, 41.
3 Stegagno Picchio, ‘Le Poesie d’amore’, 54, 56, 46.
4 Reference to Stegagno Picchio in this paragraph is to p. 42.
5 Cantigas d’amor, No. 44.
ASSONANCE IN GALICIAN-PORTUGUESE CANTIGAS 399
As far as I am aware, only two other cantigas de amor, Joan Zorro, ‘En
Lixboa, sobre lo mar’ and Roy Fernandiz, ‘Quand’ eu vejo las ondas’, are in
assonance.8 Thus, we may have yet another, metrical aspect of Vidal’s
originality.
These seven should probably also be seen as cantigas de amor. All ten
(except, as will appear, parts of 256) are in rhyme.
The four stanzas of ‘Oy og’eu h a pastor cantar’ have the rhyme scheme
a’bbaa’ in which a’ is the same word (dobre) in each stanza. The last line of
each stanza, a parallelistic elaboration of dizia este cantar, introduces a
three-line song by way of refrain, the fourth song itself introducing a fifth
three-line song.11
1
Oy og’eu h a pastor cantar
du cavalgava per h a ribeyra,
e a pastor estava senlheyra;
e ascondi-me pola ascuytar,
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The second pastorela with snatches of songs or cantigas de amigo is of course ‘Oy og’eu h a
pastor cantar’ (256). For other references to the amiga singing cantares de amigo, see
Estevam Coelho, ‘Sedia la fremosa seu sirgo torcendo’ (155), where she is ‘dizendo
[/cantando] / cantares d’amigo’; and Pedr’Amigo de Sivilha, ‘Un cantar novo d’amigo / querrei
agora aprender / que fez ora meu amigo’ (336).
11 Citation is from Le poesie di Ayras Nunez, ed. Giuseppe Tavani (Milan: Ugo
Merendi, 1964), 63–64. I have made one or two small editorial adjustments.
12 Song 3 is almost identical with Nuno Fernandes Torneol, ‘Que coita tamanha ei a
ASSONANCE IN GALICIAN-PORTUGUESE CANTIGAS 401
4
25 Poys que a guirlanda fez a pastor
foy-se cantando, indo-ss’én manselinho;
e torney-m’eu logo a meu cam o,
ca de a nojar non ouve sabor;
e dizia este cantar ben a pastor:
(i)
30 ‘Pela rribeyra do rryo
cantando ya la virgo
d’amor:
(ii)
“Quem amores á
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como dormirá,
35 ay, bela frol?” ’13
Tavani, as part of his metrical analysis, sees an overall, unpredictable
pattern in which the stanzas can rhyme with the songs and the songs with
each other:
‘Bem’ (l. 13), Stanza: rhyme with ‘pen’ (l. 15), Song.
‘Mal’ (l. 16), Song: rhyme with ‘avelanal’ (l. 24), Song.
‘Pastor’ (l. 29), Stanza: rhyme with ‘d’amor’ (l. 32), Song.
‘D’amor’ (l. 32), Song: assonance with ‘frol’ (l. 35), Song.14
But this account overlooks another possible pattern, equally valid and
perhaps more satisfying, that could emerge as follows. I suggest that MSS
pen (Song 2, l. 15) might not unreasonably be edited as ‘peno’.15 The word
would then assonate with ‘avelanedo’ (Song 2, l. 14), which would thus
cease to be ‘rima libera’.16 Further, sofrer / veer (Song 3) and á / dormirá
(Song 4 [ii]) could each be seen as in assonance. They are, after all, rhymes
of popular songs or popular-style cantigas de amigo. On this basis, the
cultivated poet describes his voyeuristic experience in rhyme (a cantiga de
sofrer / por amar amigu’e non o veer! / e pousarei so lo avelãal’ (78), developed in five further
stanzas with parallelism and leixa-pren.
13 Song 4 (i) is almost identical with Joan Zorro, ‘Pela ribeira do rio / cantando ia la
dona virgo’ (386), developed in one other parallelistic stanza. Zorro’s ‘dona virgo / dona
d’algo’, however, sings a different song: ‘Venhan nas barcas polo rio / a sabor’. For analogues
to Song 4 (ii), see Corpus de la antigua lírica popular hispánica (siglos XV a XVII), ed.
Margit Frenk (Madrid: Castalia, 1987), Nos 167, 296.
14 Le Poesie di Ayras Nunes, 65–66.
15 Cod. 10991, Biblioteca Nacional, Lisbon, 868, 869, 870; Cod. 4803, Biblioteca
Vaticana, 454. Nunes prints ‘pen[o]’ and comments: ‘nos tercetos a rima é toante no 1.º, 2.º e
4.º ..., consoante no 3. º’ (Cantigas d’amigo, III, 228).
16 Interestingly, in Tavani, Repertorio metrico, Song 2 appears as ‘e-o’, ‘al’ (141: 1, 143:
1-2, pp. 144–45).
402 BHS, LXXVII (2000) JOHN GORNALL
Carreiro and 387, by Joan Zorro), Joan Zorro, ‘Pela ribeira do rio’ (386) and
D. Dinis, ‘Levantou-s’ a velida’ (20).20
This mistakenly doctrinaire statistic, involving almost as many poets as
poems, is in defiance of the use of assonance ‘on the ground’. For cantigas
de amigo containing assonances mixed with rhymes amount, in striking
contrast, to over thirty. In the list below, refrains have been ignored. The
figures on the right show the number of assonances and stanzas.
D. Denis
‘Non chegou, madr’, o meu amigo’ (17) 1/ 6
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20 Nunes’ list of cantigas that contain nothing but assonances includes, mistakenly
and puzzlingly, Nos 18, 21, 43, 220, 382; and ‘etc.’ (I, 423). In Giuseppe Tavani, Repertorio
metrico della lirica galego-portoghese (Rome: Ateneo, 1967), cantigas containing assonances
and rhymes are apparently sometimes tacitly recognized as in assonance. For example, D.
Denis, ‘Ai flores, ai, flores do verde p o’ (19), though it contains two rhymes (amigo / comigo
[stanza 3], amado / jurado [stanza 4]), is described as ‘i-o ~ a-o’ (26: 85, p. 73). And Joan
Zorro, ‘El-rei de Portugale’ (384), although, as we have seen, it has two rhymes (lavrare /
deitare [stanza 3], fazere / metere [stanza 4]), is none the less ‘a-e ~ e-e’, (37: 62, p. 87). On
the other hand, Nuno Porco, ‘Irei a lo mar vee-lo meu amigo’ (349) (amigo / migo; amado /
mandado; migo / vivo; despagado / endõado) is not ‘i-o ~ a-o’, but ‘igo / ivo ~ ado’ (26: 59, p.
71). And Meendinho, ‘Sedia-m’eu na ermida de San Simion’ (252) (Simion / son; altar / mar;
son / remador; mar / remar; remador / maior; remar / mar) is not ‘o ~ a’, but ‘on / or ~ ar’ (37:
32, p. 84). ‘In assonance’ is nowhere defined in the Repertorio, where the approach
(reasonably enough) is pragmatic.
404 BHS, LXXVII (2000) JOHN GORNALL
D. Denis
‘Bon dia vi, amigo’ (16)
Nuno Fernandez Torneol
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El-rei D. Sancho I
‘Ai eu coitada!’ (512)
In some cases, the use of rhymes only must have been deliberate.
Bernal de Bonaval, for example, although composing four popular cantigas
de amigo and even two de amor, never uses assonance.21 On the other
hand, six authors of popular cantigas de amigo with rhymes only—D.
Denis, Nuno Fernandes Torneol, Joan Zorro, Pero Meogo, Martin de Ginzo
and Martim Codax—also composed ‘mixed’ cantigas. Thus, their (and
others’?) use of consistent rhyme might sometimes have been the result of
chance or, to put it another way, of a preference for morphological forms
(1st and 3rd person singular preterites and, particularly, infinitives, for
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21 Cantigas d’amor, ‘A dona que eu am’ e tenho por senhor’ (210) and ‘A Bonaval quer’
eu, mha senhor, hir’ (213).
22 See, for example, Nos 77–78 (Nuno Fernandes Torneol), 392 (Roi Martins do Casal),
412, 414 (Pero Meogo), 490 (Martin de Ginzo), and 497 (Martim Codax).
23 Thomas R. Hart, ‘En maneira de proençal’: The Medieval Galician-Portuguese Lyric,
PMHRS (London: Dept of Hispanic Studies, Queen Mary and Westfield College, 1998), 36.
Remarkably, assonance, as far as I can see, is nowhere mentioned in this work.
24 Manuel Rodrigues Lapa writing in 1973 as quoted by Hart (35).