Milá y Fontanals, who incidentally informs us that Corneille was the first foreigner to quote a Spanish _romance_,[8] states that these theories as to the antiquity and Arabic origin of the _romances_ were first advanced by another foreigner—Pierre-Daniel Huet, Bishop of Avranches—towards the end of the seventeenth century.[9] But they made little way till 1820, when the theory of Arabic origin was confidently reiterated by Conde in his _Historia de la dominación de los árabes en España_. Conde’s scholarship has been declared inadequate by later Orientalists, and the rest of us must be content to accept the verdict of these experts who alone have any right to an opinion on the matter. But it cannot be disputed that Conde had the knack of presenting a case plausibly, and of passing off a conjecture for a fact. Hence he made many converts who perhaps exaggerated his views. It is just possible—though unlikely—that there may be some slight relation between an Arabic _zajal_ and such a Spanish composition as the _serranilla_ quoted in the last lecture:— ¡Sí ganada es Antequera! ¡Oxalá Granada fuera! ¡Sí me levantara un dia por mirar bien Antequera! vy mora con ossadía passear por la rivera. Sola va, sin compannera, en garnachas de un contray. Yo le dixe: ‘_Alá çulay_.’— ‘_Calema_,’ me respondiera. But, in the first place, a _serranilla_ is not a _romance_; and, in the second place, a more probable counter-theory derives the _serranilla_ form from the Portuguese-Galician lyrics which are themselves of French origin. Beyond this very disputable relation, there is no basis for Conde’s theory. Dozy has shown conclusively that nothing could be more unlike than the elaborately learned conventions of Arabic verse and the untutored methods of the Spanish _romances_, the artless expression of spontaneous popular poetry. It may be taken as established that there is no trace of Arabic influence in the _romances_, and there is no sound reason for thinking that any existing _romance_ is of remote antiquity. So far from there being many extant specimens dating from before the time of Don Juan Manuel, there are none. What some have believed to be the oldest known _romance_— Alburquerque, Alburquerque, bien mereces ser honrado[10]— refers to an incident which occurred in 1430, almost a century after Don Juan Manuel’s death; and even if we take for granted that one of the _romances fronterizos_ or border-ballads— Cercada tiene á Baeza ese arráez Audalla Mir[11]—