The Cid very soon became the favorite hero of popular songs. It is probable that these songs were at first short stories in rude metri cal form; and that they were the sources of the epic poems. The earliest of the epic poems is del Cid' or de Mio Cid,"The Poem of My Cid,' based upon history, but with a large amount of legendary matter. Its date is probably about 1200. It is one of the best of mediaeval folk epics, its characters being drawn with clearness and simplicity. Another poem of about the same date, (The Legend or Chronicle of the Youth of Rodrigo,' is of in ferior merit, though not without fine passages. Two centuries and more after these poems we meet with the 'Romances' or 'Ballads of the Cid.' The earliest of these do not in their present form far antedate 1500. These ballads are derived from all sources, but chiefly from the Cid legend, which is here treated in a lyric and popular tone.
These ballads make Jimena (or Ximena) Gomez the wife of the Cid and tell the legend ary story of her father (Don Gomez), insult ing the Cid's father, of the Cid's revenge by killing Don Gomez, of Jimena's pursuit of the Cid demanding justice of King Ferdinand and the final reconciliation through marriage. De Castro, in his drama, •'The Youth of the Cid,' drew his material from the ballads, but added love and the conflict between affection and the claims of honor in the mind of 'both Jimena and the Cid. Corneille based his drama, 'The Cid' (see Cm, THE) upon that of Castro, using the same plot and the same struggle between love and duty on the part of the hero and heroine. Corneille condensed De Castro's (The Cid,' gave it dramatic unity, and added greater dignity and nobility to the verse. His drama, when first put on the stage in France (1636), met with immediate success. Of the very first poem on El Cid, there are translations by A. M. Huntington (1901); T. H. Frere (1874); J. Ormsby (1879). Consult Huber,
des Cid) (Bremen 1829) ; Southey,
CID, The (Le Cid) (1636), the play through which Corneille first gained distinction as a dramatist, marks a turning point in the development of the French stage. The scene is Seville, at the court of Ferdinand, king of Castile; the time about 1075; the theme a struggle on the hero's part between love and honor, between duty and love on the heroine's. The kerpel of the story belongs to historic tradition. In telling the deeds of Ruy Diaz de Bivar, the Cid Campeador, in the struggle of Christian and Moslem in Spain the chronicler Mariana records a duel between the Cid and the Count of Gormaz, a mainstay of the realm. In this encounter the Count was killed. His daughter and heir Ximena then "demanded of the king that he should give him to her as hus band, for she was much attracted by his merits, or punish him according to the laws." They
were married, continues Mariana, "with the approval of all.° This theme had been already dramatized by the Spaniard Guillem de Castro and was the subject of several Spanish ballads. From all these sources Corneille borrowed freely whatever was to his purpose, but his treatment of the materials was independent and original. In his opening scene Chimene (Ximena) discovers to the inevitable confidante her love for Rodrique, the Cid: Then the king's daughter, L'Infante, tells her confidante that finding her own passion for Rodrigue hopeless she is resigned to see it extinguished by the marriage of its object to Chimeric. But now arises an apparently insurmountable barrier in a quarrel over court preferment between Don Diego, the father of Rodrigue, and the father of Chimene. He insults Diego, whose age com pels him to commit his honor to his son, who puts it magnanimously above his love. He kills Chimene's father, inopportunely for na tional defense, since an invasion of Moors im pends. Chimene demands the death of her lover. She will "pursue him, destroy him and follow him in death." Yet she hides her love neither from herself nor from him. She Will "do all in her power to avenge her father, but her sole hope is that she may avail nothing.' While the king hesitates Rodrigue overcomes the Moors. Chimene finds a champion in Rod rigue's rival, Don Sanchc, for she will marry her avenger. Yet, in desperate conflict with herself, she urges Rodrigue to do his utmost to save her from Sanche. Rodrigue "puts honor above Chimene, Chimene above life.' She will yield herself to the victor. Rodrigue leaves her invincible. But presently Sanche appears to offer her a bleeding sword. He is scorned unheard. For her it shall be a convent, since she cannot wed Rodrigue. But it now ap pears that Rodrigue has sent the disarmed Sanche unharmed, for he "would destroy no life that had been ventured for Chimene," to give his own sword to her and tell of Rodri?ue's victory. The king, her heart revealed, joins. the lovers, betrothed at last.
The Cid broke radically with the traditions of the French stage, hitherto bound by largely misunderstood Aristotelian canons. Scudery, a critic of. its subject ill-chosen, its its action clumsy, its prosody bad. Cardinal Richelieu was jealous for he had literary foibles; the Academicians professed alarm. Corneille found it prudent to withdraw for three years from Paris to Rouen. But the play was popular from the first. Boileau found that all Paris has for Rodrigue the eyes of Chimene and, though this tragicomedy lacks ethical depth and tragic force, it is still most acted of Corneille's dramas. 'Le Cid' is best edited with English notes by C. Searles (Boston 1912) ; translated by Mongan (New York 1896). Consult Gast& 'La Querelle du Cid> (Paris 1878) and Searles, C., 'Les Sentiments de I'Academie Frangaise sur Le Cid' (Minneapolis 1916).