[60] _The Departure of King Sebastian_, referring to the expedition of 1578, is obviously modern; the original is to be found in Durán, No. 1245:— Una bella lusitana, dama ilustre y de valía. [61] _Primavera_, No. 96_a_; Durán, 1086. [62] _Reliques of Ancient English Poetry_ (London, 1765), vol. i., pp. 319-323. Percy’s version begins as follows:— Gentle river, gentle river, Lo, thy streams are stained with gore, Many a brave and noble captain Floats along thy willow’d shore. All beside thy limpid waters, All beside thy sands so bright, Moorish chiefs and Christian warriors Join’d in fierce and mortal fight. Lords, and dukes, and noble princes On thy fatal banks were slain; Fatal banks that gave to slaughter All the pride and flower of Spain. Percy also gives an adaptation of Durán, No. 53:— Por la calle de su dama paseando se halla Zaide. In a preliminary note he says:—‘The Spanish editor pretends (how truly I know not) that they are translations from the Arabic or Morisco language. Indeed the plain, unadorned nature of the verse, and the native simplicity of language and sentiment, which runs through these poems, prove that they are ancient; or, at least, that they were written before the Castillians began to form themselves on the model of the Tuscan poets, and had imported from Italy that fondness for conceit and refinement which has for these two centuries past so miserably infected the Spanish poetry, and rendered it so unnatural, affected, and obscure.’ [63] _Primavera_, No. 85a; Durán, No. 1064. Byron’s adaptation is entitled _A Very Mournful Ballad on the Siege and Conquest of Alhama, which, in the Arabic language is to the following purport_:— The Moorish king rides up and down, Through Granada’s royal town; From Elvira’s gates to those Of Bivarambla on he goes. Woe is me, Alhama! Letters to the monarch tell, How Alhama’s city fell: In the fire the scroll he threw, And the messenger he slew. Woe is me, Alhama! etc. Ginés Pérez de Hita states that this ballad was originally written in Arabic, and that the inhabitants of Granada were forbidden to sing it. Possibly the _romance_ was suggested by some Arabic song on the loss of Alhama. [64] _Primavera_ (Apéndices), No. 18. [65] Published at Sevillo in 1588, and reprinted at Jaén in 1867. [66] _Primavera_, No. 71; Durán, No. 1039. [67] _Primavera_, No. 79; Durán, No. 1073. [68] See M. R. Foulché-Delbosc’s edition (Macon, 1904), p. 189. Aquel que tu vees con la saetada, que nunca mas faze mudança del gesto, mas, por virtud de morir tan onesto, dexa su sangre tan bien derramada sobre la villa no poco cantada, el adelantado Diego de Ribera es el que fizo la vuestra frontera tender las sus faldas mas contra Granada. [69] _Primavera_, No. 74; Durán, No. 1043. [70] _Primavera_, No. 78_a_; Durán, No. 1038. [71] _Primavera_, No. 88; Durán, No. 1102.