The age and origin of this remarkable poem can be settled only by internal evidence. From this it seems probable that it was written in Aragon, because it contains many words and phrases peculiar to the border country of the Provençals,[158] and that it dates from the latter half of the fourteenth century, because the four-fold rhyme is hardly found later in such verses, and because the rudeness of the language might indicate even an earlier period, if the tale had come from Castile. But in whatever period we may place it, it is a curious and interesting production. It has the directness and simplicity of the age to which it is attributed, mingled sometimes with a tenderness rarely found in ages so violent. Its pastoral air, too, and its preservation of Oriental manners, harmonize well with the Arabian feelings that prevail throughout the work; while in its spirit, and occasionally in its moral tone, it shows the confusion of the two religions which then prevailed in Spain, and that mixture of the Eastern and Western forms of civilization which afterwards gives somewhat of its coloring to Spanish poetry.[159] [158] This is apparent also in the addition sometimes made of an _o_ or an _a_ to a word ending with a consonant, as _mercadero_ for _mercader_. [159] Thus, the merchant who buys Joseph talks of Palestine as “the Holy Land,” and Pharaoh talks of making Joseph a Count. But the general tone is Oriental. The last poem belonging to these earliest specimens of Castilian literature is the “Rimado de Palacio,” on the duties of kings and nobles in the government of the state, with sketches of the manners and vices of the times, which, as the poem maintains, it is the duty of the great to rebuke and reform. It is chiefly written in the four-line stanzas of the period to which it belongs; and, beginning with a penitential confession of its author, goes on with a discussion of the ten commandments, the seven deadly sins, the seven works of mercy, and other religious subjects; after which it treats of the government of a state, of royal counsellors, of merchants, of men of learning, tax-gatherers, and others; and then ends, as it began, with exercises of devotion. Its author is Pedro Lopez de Ayala, the chronicler, of whom it is enough to say here, that he was among the most distinguished Spaniards of his time, that he held some of the highest offices of the kingdom under Peter the Cruel, Henry the Second, John the First, and Henry the Third, and that he died in 1407, at the age of seventy-five.[160] [160] For the Rimado de Palacio, see Bouterwek, trad. de Cortina, Tom. I. pp. 138-154. The whole poem consists of 1619 stanzas. For notices of Ayala, see Chap. IX.