HOW CAN I LIVE ALONE?

"Despidistesme Senora."

AND dost thou bid me, bid me go?
Whither, O! whither can I fly?
How can I live alone?-O no!

Lady! and wouldst thou have me

Yes! I will go to distant shores,
Calling for ever, maid! on thee—
Calling on her my soul adores :
Where can my love, my lady be?
Calling on thee alone I'll go,

die?

Bidding the echoing heavens reply:

How can I live alone?-O no!

Lady! and wouldst thou have me die?

Cancionero de Lisboa, 1517, p. 51.

THE MAIDEN WAITING HER LOVER.

"Dulces arboles sombrosos."

YE trees that make so sweet a shade,
Bend down your waving heads, when he,
The youth ye honour, through your glade,
Comes on love's messages to me.
Ye stars, that shine o'er heaven's blue deep,
And all its arch with glory fill,

O wake him, wake him from his sleep,
If that dear youth be slumbering still.

Lark! that hailest the morn above-
Nightingale! singing on yonder bough,
Hasten, and tell my lingering love-
Tell him how long I've waited now.
Pass'd is the midnight's shade:
Where is he-where?
Say, can some other maid

His favours share?

Celestina, Amberes, 1595, p. 324.

COUNT ARNALDOS.

"Quien hubiera tal ventura."

WHO was ever sped by fortune
O'er the ocean's waters, say,
As the happy Count Arnaldos,
On the morn of Juan's day?
In his hand he held a falcon,

And he went to chase the game,
When a gay and splendid galley
To the shore advancing came.
All its fluttering sails were silken,
All its shrouds of flounces clear,
And the gay and clear-voiced helmsman
Sang a song so sweet to hear,
That the waves were calm and silent,

And the noisy storm-wind hush'd,

And the fish that live the deepest
To the water's surface rush'd;
While the restless birds were gather'd,
Listening on the masts, and still.

"O, my galley!-O my galley!

God preserve us now from ill:

O'er the waters of the ocean,

O'er the dark world's troubles far,

O'er the plains of Almeria,

And the straits of Gibraltār;

Over Leon's gulf of peril,

Over the Venetian sea,

And the fearful banks of Flanders,
Where the hidden dangers be."
Thus he spake, the Count Arnaldos,
Thus he spake, and thou shalt hear:
Sing that song, by Heaven I charge thee!
Sing that song, good mariner."

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But the mariner was silent,

And he only answer'd-" No! They alone must hear my music, They alone who with me go."

Cancionero de Amberes, 1555, 176.

THE LUCKLESS KNIGHT.

"En los tiempos que me vi."

'Twas in the days of mirth and joy,
When all looked gay and smiling round,
And I from Burgos had set out,

And was to Valladolid bound.
I met a palmer on the road,

Who stopp'd me with a mournful tone, And said "Where art thou going now, Where art thou going, wretched one? O, wretched one! in luckless day

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I knew thee"-thus the palmer said-
Thy maid is dead, I saw her die-
Thy maid is dead, I saw her dead;
I saw them cover o'er with black

The funeral bier on which she lay,
And the responses at the tomb

I heard-I heard, and help'd to say. Seven noble counts wept o'er the corpse, And more than thousand knights were there, Her maidens sobb'd and cried, and thus Their voice of sadness met my ear:

"O, luckless knight !-O, luckless knight! Whose flower of hope death thus could blight."