the battle he questioned one
of his Moorish allies, Yusuf Ibn Alahmar, concerning the
conspicuous objects of Granada. The poem was utilized
by Chateaubriand for two passages of _Les aventures du
dernier Abencerage_.

=I. Abenamar= = _Ibn Alahmar_: see above.

9. The verbal forms in-_ara_ and-_iera_ were used then as
now as the equivalent of the pluperfect or the preterit
indicative.

=II. la=: _la verdad_ is probably understood. Cf. p. 2, l.
I.

=2.--I. diria= = _dire_. In the _romances_ the conditional
often replaces the future, usually to fit the assonance.

5. =relucian:= in the old ballads the imperfect indicative
is often used to express loosely past time or even present
time.

6. =El Alhambra:= in the language of the old ballads _el_,
not _la_, is used before a feminine noun with initial-_a_
or _e_-, whether the accent be on the first syllable or
not.

25. =viuda= in old Spanish was pronounced _viuda_ and
assonated in _i-a_. This expletive =que= is common in
Spanish: do not translate.

27. =grande= merely strengthens =bien=.

=3.--Fonte-frida= is a poem of erotic character, much
admired for its suave melancholy. Probably it is merely an
allegorical fragment of a longer poem now lost. It is one
of those printed in the _Cancionero general_ of 1511. It
was well translated by Bowring. There is also a metrical
version in Ticknor, I, III. This theme is found in the
_Physiologus_, a medieval bestiary. One of these page 256
animal stories relates that the turtle-dove has but one
mate and if this mate dies the dove remains faithful
to its memory. Cf. _Mod. Lang. Notes_, June, 1904
(_Turtel-Taube_), and February, 1906.

3. In =avecicas= and =tortolica= the diminutive
ending-_ica_ seems to be quite equivalent to-_ito_. Cf.
Knapp's _Span. Gram., 760a_.

4. =van tomar= = _van a tomar_.

7. =fuera=: note that _fue_ (or =fuera=) =a pasar= =
_paso_. This usage is now archaic, although it is still
sometimes used by modern poets: see p. 136, l. 18.

18. =bebia=: see note, p. 2, l. 5.

19. =haber=, in the ballads, often = _tener_. See also
=haya= in the following line.

=4=.--=El Conde Arnaldos=. Lockhart says of "Count
Arnaldos," "I should be inclined to suppose that

'More is meant than meets the ear,'

--that some religious allegory is intended to be shadowed
forth." Others have thought the same, and the strong
mystic strain in Spanish character may bear out the
opinion. In order th