disposed to see justice more impartially distributed to the old Spanish romances.[50] THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF POETIC ROMANCE. The romances composed on subjects derived from the fictions of chivalry, which have been preserved in the collections, are distinguished by the old forms of the language, and the primitive mode of repeating a single rhyme, which often becomes a mere assonance, from the romances of a later date, though even these have long since been called old. Amadis de Gaul appears to have contributed very little to this kind of ballad.[51] The great number and the longest of the romances are taken from the fabulous adventures of Charlemagne and his Paladins. In them we again meet with the twelve peers of France, who figure in the poems of Boyardo and Ariosto, with the addition of Don Gayferos, the Moor Calaynos, and other poetic characters, to whom the Spanish public were the more readily disposed to grant an historical existence, in consequence of the chivalric history of Charlemagne’s Paladins (who are represented to have fought like the Spaniards against the Moors,) being held in great respect as a supplemental part of Spanish National History. In progress of time, however, the romance of the Moor Calaynos became the subject of a proverb, employed to denote verses in an old exploded and vulgar style.[52] The ballad of the _Conde Alarcos_, who with his own hands strangled his lady in satisfaction to the honour, and in obedience to the commands of his king, appears to have had its origin in some romantic work of chivalry. This and two other romances which relate how the youthful Don Gayferos avenged the death of his father, are among the best to which knight-errantry has given birth; though in the remaining specimens of this kind of ballad, the poetic genius of the age occasionally displays itself in all its energetic simplicity. The authors of these romances paid little regard to ingenuity of invention, and still less to correctness of execution. When an impressive story of poetical character was found, the subject and the interest belonging to it were seized with so much truth and feeling, that the parts of the little piece, the brief labour of untutored art, linked themselves together, as it were, spontaneously; and the imagination of the bard had no higher office than to give to the situations a suitable colouring and effect. This he performed without study or effort, and painted them more or less successfully according to the inspiration, good or bad, of the moment. These antique, racy effusions of a pregnant poetic imagination, scarcely conscious of its own productive power, are nature’s genuine offspring. To recount their easily recognized defects and faults is as superfluous, as it would be impossible by any critical study to imitate a single trait of that noble simplicity which constitutes their highest charm.[53]