CATALAN LITERATURE Poetry in the Middle Ages.—Although the Catalan language is a branch of the southern Gallo-Roman, the literature, in its origin might be considered as supplementary to that of Provence. Until about the second half of the 13th century the poets of north eastern Spain used no other language than that of the troubadours. Guillem de Bergadan, Uc de Mataplana, RamOn Vidal de Besalii, Guillem de Cervera, Served de Gerona, were all genuine Provencal poets, in the same sense as are those of Limousin, Quercy or Auvergne, since they wrote in the langue d'oc and made use of all the forms of poetry cultivated by the troubadours north of the Pyrenees. RamOn Vidal (end of the 12th century and beginning of 13th) was a grammarian as well as a poet; his Dreita manera de trobar became the code for the Catalan poetry written in Provencal, which he called Lemosi. From the combination of spoken Catalan with the literary language of the troubadours there arose a composite idiom. Among the oldest examples of this Provencalized Catalan verse are the poetical works of Ray mond Lully or Ramon Lull (1235-1315), and one has only to read the fine piece entitled Lo Desconort ("Despair"), or some of his stanzas on religious subjects, to apprehend at once the emi nently composite nature of that language. Muntaner (1265 1336), whose prose is exactly that spoken by his contemporaries, becomes a troubadour when he writes in verse ; his Serino on the conquest of Sardinia and Corsica (1323), introduced into his Chronicle of the kings of Aragon•, exhibits linguistically the same mixed character as is found in Lully. Catalan verse writers of the 14th century are not very numerous, nor are their works of any great merit. The majority of their compositions consist of what were called ?loves rimades, that is, stories in octosyllabic verse in rhymed couplets. There exist poems of this class by Pere March, by Torrella, by Bernat Metge (an author more celebrated for his prose), and by others whose names we do not know; among the works belonging to this last category special mention ought to be made of a version of the romance of the Seven Sages, a transla tion of a book on good breeding entitled Facetus, and certain tales where, by the choice of subjects, by various borrowings, and even occasionally by the wholesale introduction of pieces of French poetry, it is clearly evident that the writers of Catalonia under stood and read the langue d'oui. Closely allied to the naves rimades is another analogous form of versification—that of the codolada, consisting of a series of verses of eight and four syl lables, rhyming in pairs, still made use of in one portion of the Catalan domain (Majorca).
poetry. At the instigation and under the auspices of John I. Martin I. (1395-141o), and Ferdinand I. (1410 1416), kings of Aragon, there was founded at Barcelona a con sistory of the "Gay Saber," on the model of that of Toulouse, and this official protection accorded to poetry was the beginning of a new style much more emancipated from Provençal influence. The language begins to rid itself more and more of Proven calisms, and tends to become the same as that of prose and of ordinary conversation. With Pere and Jaume March, Jordi de Sant Jordi, Johan de Masdovelles, Francesch Ferrer, Pere Tor rella, Pau de Bellviure, Antoni Vallmanya, and, above all, the Valencian Auzias March, there developed a new school, which flourished till the end of the 15th century, and which, as regards the form of its versification, is distinguished by its almost exclu sive employment of eight-verse cobles of ten syllables, each with "crossed" or "chained" rhymes ending with a tornada of four verses. Auzias March the most inspired, the most profound, but also the most obscure of the whole group, was printed in the 16th century; his Cants d'amor and Cants de mart contain the finest verses ever written in Catalan. He was admired by Santillane and translated into Castilian by Montemayor (156o). Of a wholly different class, and in quite another spirit, is the Spill des dones of Jaume Roig (d. 1478), a Valencian also, like March; this long poem is in quadrisyllabic instead of octosyllabic verse. A bitter and caustic satire upon women, it purports to be a true history—the history of the poet himself and of his three unhappy marriages in particular. Notwithstanding its author's allegations, however, the spin des dones is mostly fiction; but it derives a very piquant interest from its really authentic element, its vivid picture of the Valencia of the 15th century and the details of contemporary manners. Amongst other poets, Joan Roic de Corella (143o–I500), was the author of the Tragedia de Caldesa and an Oracio to the Virgin Mary. After this bright period of efflorescence, Catalan poetry rapidly faded, a decline due more to the force of circumstances than to any fault of the poets. The union of Aragon with Castile, and the resulting predominance of Castilian throughout Spain, inflicted a death-blow on Catalan literature, especially on its poetry. The fact that a Catalan, Juan Boscan, inaugurated in the Castilian language a new kind of poetry, and that the Castilians themselves regard him as the head of a school, is important and characteristic ; the date of the publi cation of the works of Boscan marks the end of mediaeval Catalan poetry.