Pedro Lopez de Ayala (1332-1407), who held important offices at the courts of King Pedro the Cruel and of Henry of Trastamare, was one of the last writers of his time to make any large use of the cuaderna via. This form prevails in his satirical and didactic Rimado de palacio, in which he assails the social, political, and other abuses of his time. In the second part of the poem, he inserts, here and there, plaints, laments, and songs to the Virgin, which are lyric in their nature and are composed in various measures. These mark Ayala as one of the earliest of the Court poets who imported into Castilian that form of the lyric which, following Provencal rules, had long been cultivated in Galician. Dur ing the reign of Pedro the Cruel the Rabbi Santo of Carrion (Sem Tob) prepared his Provcrbios morales. This collection constitutes one of the most important Hebrew contributions to Spanish literature, and it introduces a genre which is later to be attempted by such writers as Santillana and Perez de GuzmAn. Seriousness of purpose, lacking in the Court poetry, is present in the Dantesque allegory and vision introduced into Spain, soon after 1400, by Imperial, a native of Seville, but of Genoese origin. The serious moralizing tendency is also visible in the Doct rina of Pedro de Veragua and especially in the noted Danza de la 111 u er te (Dance of Death), which seems to ha the work of the middle of the fifteenth century. The highest point reached by culture in the reign of John II. is seen in the literary works of San tillana, of Fermin Perez de Guzauln, of Mena, and of Rodriguez del Padron. To Ferniin Perez we owe the Claros varones de Espaila (a pane gyric in verse), versified Prorerbios, and allegor ical and lyrical poems, besides historical works in prose; Rodriguez has left us ballads and a little verse in the conventional Court manner, besides a prose tale. Iffigo Lopez de Mendoza, Marquis of Santillana (1398-1458), is probably the most im pressive literary figure of the fifteenth century. He was one of the first to imitate Iloraee in Spain, he imported the sonnet from Italy, and he furthered the influence of Dante by copying the latter's al legorical methods in his Comedieta de Ponza, his Coronacion de Alosser Jodi, and his Inficrno de enamorados. In certain other poems he displays a didactic and a satirical bent, as in his Prover bias, his Dialoyo dc Bias contra Fortuna, and his Doctrinal de prirados. The most interesting and certainly the most entertaining element of his poetical work is that represented by his love songs, such as the serranillas. In prose he him self prepared a Carta al Condestable de Portugal, in which he appears as the first true historian of Spanish literature. The influence of Dante, as well as that of Luca'', is obvious in the allegor ical Laberinto (also called the Trecientas, from the original number of its stanzas) of Juan do Mena (1411-56), and to him are due likewise a poetical eulogy of Santillana, entitled La corona clan, and the moralizing Copies de los sietc pcca dos mortales. Of other noteworthy poets of this time there can be mentioned here only (kimez Man rique (died 1491) and Jorge Manrique (died 1479) ; the latter is remembered for his noble Coplas on the death of his father.
During the reign of Henry IV. (1454-74) there appeared no slight amount of political satire, the chief instance being among the Coplas dc Mingo Revulgo. Of ballads (romances) Spain has been exceedingly productive; in broadsheets or in col lections (romanceros), there were published dur ing the final years of the fifteenth century, and during the sixteenth century, a very large number dealing with subjects drawn from the real or legendary history of Spain and of France, etc., as well as with subjects chivalrous and erotic.
In Spanish prose of the fifteenth century, the humanistic work already begun in Italy was zeal ously carried on. There was much translation of the classics of antiquity and of the modern Latin writings of Boccaccio and others. Ecclesiastical Latin authors also received some share of atten tion, and works were introduced from the French, Catalan, and Italian, those of Boccaccio being particularly popular for translation purposes. The
influence of all these translations—and especially those from Plutarch, Livy, and Valerius Maxi mus—manifested itself in the development given to the writing of history. Lopez de Ayala con tinued the official chronicle of the realm (CrOni cas de los reycs de Castilla); Garcia de Santa MC•uria, Fermin Perez de Guznffin, and Diego de Valera (1412-86) worked upon the Cron ice rlcl re// Juan II.; the last named writer and En riquez del Castillo dealt with the reign of Henry IV. in the Memorial de dirersas hazarias; and Fernando del Pulgar and Andres Beriffildez prepared the account of the reign of Isabel 1. There also appeared a multitude of chronicles dealing with the lives of individual personages. No little interest attaches to the Crtinica Stir roccna of Pedro de Corral, which gives the whole legendary history of Roderick the Goth.
In French stories of a pseudo-historical nature the Spaniards had very early begun to take a seri ous interest ; and these stories, particularly those treating the matit'rr do Bretagne, were to play an important part in connection with the devel opment of prose fiction in Spain. The Court poetry of the reign of John II. (first half of the fifteenth century) is full of references to Arthur and his knights of the Round Table, to Merlin, and to the Quest of the 1Toly Grail. Charlemagne and Roland are still named along with the heroes of the Round Table, but they obviously have no longer the same living interest.
With the Caballero (Nor, of the first half of the fourteenth century. we have the first inde pendent work of fiction in Spain. and this was followed perhaps a generation later by one of the most famous of all modern romances, the Amadis de Gaula.(See ANIADIS OF GAUL.) This important Spanish work may lay claim to no small amount of originality; it accepts the elements at the basis of the French courtly romance, hut it de velops them in its own way, for, though retaining the traditional service of woman and quest of adventure, it stresses the virtuous qualities of the hero no less than his courtliness, something that the French romances had not done. In the form in which we possess it. the Amadis is due to Garcia Ordoilez de Montalvo, who completed his redaction of it between 1492 and 1504. By him we are told that he had simply rid its first three books of the errors and imperfections introduced into it by earlier redactors and by scribes, that he borrowed and improved the fourth book. and that he him self added the whole fifth book. the Scrgas de Esplandian (or Exploits of Esplanadian), in which he deals with the history of the son of the hero, Amadis. The Aimolis was the forerunner of many similar romances which enjoyed enormous vogue in the sixteenth century.
In imitation of Boeeaceio's Fiammetta, which had been translated about the middle of the fif teenth century. the tale was now attempted in Spain; noteworthy instances are Rodriguez del Patin:ill's Siert.° fibre de amor and El oireel de amor of Diego de San Pedro. Novelistic and didae tie in its manner is the Trubujos dr Here:des of Enrique de Villena (1384-1434). One of the most original and entertaining works of the whole pe riod appeared in 143S; this is a satire on woman kind by Alfonso Martinez de Toledo, chaplain to John II. and archpriest of Talavera, entitled De los ricios de ins malas mujer.s, hut also called the Corbarho. Of decided interest for the study of folk-lore are the Hebrew-Spanish and the alja ma documents, in which the Jews and the Moors, writing in Spanish. lint using their Hebrew and Arabic characters, created a rather considerable literature of their own. Many of the documents in question belong to the fifteenth century. and especially the most important of them all, the Pomo de Jaw', which gives a Mohammedan ver sion of the story of Joseph.