Structural and stylistic patterns in the «Cantar de Mio Cid»

Alan Deyermond

Habitual readers of the Cantar de Mio Cid increasingly find repetitions and echoes in the poem, and find them to be not random but significant; find that they enhance both the understanding and the enjoyment of the poem. In short, the habitual reader tends to notice patterns. I cannot hope, within the limits of this paper, to give an exhaustive account of such patterns; nor can I lay claim to total originality, for some of the features I shall mention have already been noted by critics of CMC. My aim is simply to re-examine some of these already-noticed patterns, to point out some additional ones, and to assemble the material in a form that will make possible some tentative conclusions.

CMC depends to a large extent on patterns of gradation and climax, of association and contrast. Gradation is the most important thematically (for the main theme of the poem is the decline and restoration of the Cid's honour), but contrast is by far the most important structurally. Contrasts may be found at every level, within the individual line:

Por bien lo dixo el Çid,          mas ellos lo tovieron a mal

(2464)

Antes fu minguado,          agora rico só

(2494)

Yo sirviéndovos sin art,          e vós conssejastes pora mi muert;

(2676)1

between adjacent lines:

Sospiró myo Çid,          ca mucho avié grandes cuydados. Ffabló myo Çid          bien e tan mesurado

(6-7)

- grief does not impair the Cid's powers of leadership; and within a scene, as when a locus amoenus is set within a savage wood:

Entrados son los yfantes          al rrobredo de Corpes, los montes son altos,          las rramas pujan con las nuves, elas bestias fieras          que andan aderredor. Falaron un vergel          con una linpia fuent; mandan fincar la tienda          yfantes de Carrión, con quantos que ellos traen          ý iazen essa noch, con sus mugieres en braços          demuéstranles amor; ¡mal gelo cunplieron          quando salié el sol!

(2697-2704)

In this last example there is a double contrast, for savagery (imported by the Infantes) is at the heart of the locus amoenus as well as outside it; thus the poet uses a contrast traditional in medieval literature and art in order to emphasize a new one, and to make a point about the character of the Infantes.

Contrasts are also found between characters, most notably between the Cid and the Infantes², and they may be explicitly pointed out by a third character, as when King Alfonso says to Count García Ordóñez, who has criticized the Cid, «Mejor me sirve que vós» (1349). The beginning of the poem is contrasted with the end, in terms of the Cid's early dishonour and his final and posthumous honour:

Oy los rreyes d'España          sos parientes son, a todos alcança ondra          por el que en buen ora naçió

(3724-5)

(the reversal, by which the man whose honour had depended on the whim of a king is now the source of honour for kings descended from him, begins in line 2151, when Alfonso says: «Myo Çid Ruy Díaz,          mucho me avedes ondrado»). The change in the relationship between the Cid and Alfonso is seen in terms of the feudal bond, as well as of honour: at the beginning of the poem, the citizens of Burgos say of the Cid, «¡Dios, qué buen vassalo,          si oviesse buen señor!» (20)³, while near the end, Alfonso says to the hero «commo a buen vassallo faze señor» (3478)⁴.

Ironic contrast is provided at the three turning-points of the action, which are caused by intentions misfiring and producing the opposite result to that intended:

Alfonso exiles the Cid (a), thus giving him the chance to rebuild his fortunes (b, the first turning-point) and attain a stature that he could never have had as an established but non-favourite vassal⁵. He pardons the Cid (c), and attempts to recompense him by arranging the marriages of his daughters to the Infantes de Carrión (d, the second turning-point). This is a disastrous mistake, since the character of the Infantes makes a happy outcome impossible; it may well be that Alfonso makes this mistake because he is not yet clear of his early error in depending on the Cid's enemies⁶. The resentment of the Infantes at real and imagined humiliations -well-deserved and self-inflicted humiliations- leads them to attack and abandon their wives in the Afrenta de Corpes (e, the third turning-point). By this action they had hoped to destroy the Cid's honour irrevocably and to free themselves from his daughters so that they could marry princesses, but they soon realize that they have exposed themselves to further and definitive humiliation, have freed the Cid's daughters from unsatisfactory husbands, and have thus made it possible for the girls to marry princes and for the Cid's honour to increase still further, even after his death (f)⁷. Contrast and irony are fundamental to the structure of the poem.

The poet's criterion for judging his characters is their attitude to the Cid: those who support the Cid are good, those who attack him bad. These judgments are occasionally explicit, as:

Grant es la biltança          de yfantes de Carrión. Qui buena dueña escarneçe          e la dexa después, atal le contesca          o siquier peor.

(3705-7)

Normally, however, the poet prefers to imply rather than to state his judgments. This represents a surprising degree of sophistication and artistic restraint -doubly surprising in a poem intended primarily for oral presentation- but it matches the restraint shown in the treatment of the theme of vengeance and of battle casualties. The implied judgments are presented by comparison and contrast of situations, by epic epithets, by verbal oppositions and identifications, by other linguistic-stylistic devices, and by use of symbols.

1. The closed door at Burgos:

El Campeador          adeliñó a su posada; así como legó a la puerta,          falóla bien çerrada, por miedo del rrey Alfonsso,          que assí lo avién parado

(31-33)

contrasts strongly with the joyously opened gates of the monastery of Cardeña:

Lamavan a la puerta,          ý sopieron el mandado. ¡Dios, qué alegre fue          el abbat don Sancho! Con lumbres e con candelas          al corral dieron salto; con tan grant gozo rreçiben          al que en buen ora nasco.

(242-5)

The poet is careful to explain that the Cid's rejection by the citizens of Burgos is entirely due to their fear of King Alfonso's wrath, but of course this throws the meritorious action of the Cárdena monks into sharper relief⁸. If, as seems likely, CMC was composed for a Burgos audience of the late twelfth or early thirteenth century, the shock of the Cid's rejection would be increased by a point of local geography. The hero rides out of the city gate, crosses the river Arlanzón (if we accept Menéndez Pidal's emendation of line 55, as we should), and camps on the river-bank:

Posó en la glera          quando nol coge nadi en casa... Assí posó myo Çid          commo si fuesse en montaña.

(59-61)

This was, at the time CMC was composed (though not in the Cid's lifetime), the location of the Burgos lazar-house; for hygienic reasons, these buildings were generally located at the edge of a town, and often on the river-bank. The poet's contemporaries in Burgos would thus have a vivid picture of the Cid being treated as a metaphorical leper thanks to Alfonso's hostility, and the picture would be all the more vivid because of the geographical association with real lepers⁹.

2. When the Infantes de Carrión and their wives reach Molina on their journey from Valencia towards Corpes, the Moor Abengalbón greets the Infantes with the words «¿Venides, los vassallos          de myo amigo natural?» (1479), and this is supported elsewhere by the use of amigo for Abengalbón and the Cid (1464, 1528), and by the phrase por (el) amor de (2658, 2883). Abengalbón is the Cid's amigo de paz, but owes him no legal duty; nevertheless, his friendship leads him to offer hospitality to the Cid's sons-in-law, and even to let them go free after they have plotted to murder him (2667-80). The Infantes, on the other hand, have become the Cid's sons as well as his vassals (2123, 2577), yet they treat him with the basest ingratitude and treachery. They, members of the Leonese upper nobility, behave far worse than any Moor in the poem, while the Moor Abengalbón behaves like a perfect Christian gentleman. The absence of explicit comment from the poet does not conceal the fact that he has a point to make, and makes it to good effect.

3. The Infantes are cowardly in battle, and when the Cid's lion escapes; their first display of warlike prowess is in the attack on their wives. This attack on those whom they had vowed to protect contrasts also with the Cid's refusal to fight against Alfonso when, as an exile, he was fully entitled to do so (538)¹⁰.

4. At the beginning of the poem, the Cid is in desperate need of money to feed his followers in the first stage of his campaign, and he obtains it by tricking the Jewish money-lenders Raquel and Vidas. The poet makes use of a comic folktale, and develops it at surprising length, but the function of this episode is to show the Cid's honest poverty, caused by Alfonso's oppressive action. When the Infantes de Carrión are ordered at the Toledo cort to repay the money they have had from the Cid, «Enpréstanles de lo ageno,          que non les cumple lo suyo» (3248). The outward action of borrowing to meet urgent needs is the same, but the implications of the actions contrast strongly: the Cid's borrowing has an honourable cause, while that of the Infantes emphasizes their improvidence and the well-deserved humiliation inflicted on them¹¹.

5. The Cid's hard-fought progress to Valencia, beginning in poverty and disgrace and ending in wealth, power and security, contrasts with the journey over the same route by Ximena and their daughters; the security and honour with which their journey is surrounded is a measure of the Cid's achievement. It contrasts also with the journey of the Infantes and the Cid's daughters from Valencia to Corpes, beginning in honour and ending in dishonour (temporary dishonour for the girls, lasting dishonour for the Infantes)¹².

6. Pero Bermúdez shows the same qualities in action and speech: he is normally silent and lets others speak (Fabló Mynaya e plogo a Per Vermúez, 1907), thus acquiring the nickname of Pero Mudo (3310); but when he is finally impelled to speech or to action, no-one can stop him, whether he is charging the Moorish lines against the Cid's orders (702-5), or reproaching the Infantes at the Toledo cort:

detiénes'le la lengua,          non puede delibrar, mas quando enpieça,          sabed, nol da vagar.

(3307-8)13

This valiant and usually silent man is contrasted with the Cid's enemies, who are mere windbags: Asur González «es largo de lengua,          mas en lo ál non es tan pro» (2173), and the same point is put concisely when Pero Bermúdez calls Fernando González «lengua sin manos» (3328).

7. Identical reactions from Alfonso and the Cid, hinted at as early as lines 873 and 923, «fermoso sonrrisava», are fully developed when the poet wants to stress their identity of interest:

Una grant ora          el rrey penssó e comidió

(1889)

[Myo Çid] una grand ora          penssó e comidió;

(1932)

we are thus prepared for their identical reactions to news of the Afrenta (2828, 2953).

1. «El de Bivar». The use of this key epithet has been thoroughly analyzed by Rita Hamilton, and it is only necessary to quote her conclusion: «the poet made deliberate and skilful use of these epithets to focus attention on the small but by this time familiar place which had produced a great and successful warrior, to emphasise by contrast the breadth and scope of the Cid's career in exile and to refute the pretensions of those whose place of origin was what is still known as Carrión de los Condes»¹⁴. The use of epic epithets in CMC has received so much attention -notably in Edmund de Chasca's book and Rita Hamilton's article- that there would be little advantage in prolonging the discussion here, but it should be emphasized that the careful planning which lies behind the occurrences of «el de Bivar» is found in the poet's use of several other epithets. One more example must suffice.

2. King Alfonso receives scarcely any epic epithets while he is hostile to the Cid. It is not that unfavourable epithets are applied to him: these are relatively uncommon in epic style in general, and especially so in CMC. However, only characters of heroic stature are thought worthy of epithets (the same is, by extension, true of places associated with the hero, such as Castile and Valencia), and Alfonso attains heroic stature only when he begins to favour the Cid. The criterion mentioned above operates very clearly in this matter¹⁵.

1. crecer is found, in its different forms, 24 times in CMC. One of these (3295) has a different meaning and can be eliminated, but of the remainder, twenty apply to the Cid and his followers, two are used by the Infantes of themselves (the poet thus making an ironic point?), and one refers to the Moorish forces. The repetition, and the near-exclusive use of the verb for the Cid's side, concentrates our attention on the hero's growing honour and growing prosperity¹⁶. It is linked to the even more frequent alegre and similar forms (42 occurrences, also concentrated on the Cid) by:

Alegrávas' el Çid          e todos sus varones, que les creçe la ganancia,          grado al Criador.

(2315-6)

2. ondra/abitados: this underlines the contrast between the Cid and his adversary from the Castilian upper nobility, García Ordóñez. The latter says «en la ondra que él ha          nos seremos abiltados» (1862), and the formal contrast between the words establishes the Cid's humility before Alfonso, «biltarse quiere          e ondrar a so señor» (3026). The difference is, of course, that García Ordóñez bitterly resents the contrast, while the Cid loyally welcomes it. This pair of opposed words is linked in lines 3695-3712 to our next pair, plazer/pesar:

Por ondrados se parten          los del buen Campeador; vençieron esta lid,          grado al Criador. Grandes son los pesares          por tierras de Carrión... Alegre ffue daquesto          myo Çid el Campeador. Grant es la biltança          de yfantes de Carrión... Grandes son los gozos          en Valençia la mayor, por que tan ondrados fueron          los del Campeador.

3. plazer/pesar is a frequent antithetical construction in medieval Spanish literature, and the very frequent occurrence of these words and their synonyms in CMC is, given the poet's fondness for other antithetical constructions, to be expected. What pleases the Cid grieves the Infantes, and vice versa. The contrast is sometimes within a single line, and sometimes spread over several lines. For a brief period, just after the marriages, they are used in order to associate the Cid and the Infantes:

Mucho eran alegres          Diego e Ferrando... Alegre era el Çid          e todos sus vassallos,

(2267-73)

but the poet has to express the hope that this will last, thereby planting in the minds of his audience the suspicion that it will not:

¡Plega a Santa María          e al Padre Santo ques' page des casamiento myo Çid          o el que lo ovo a algo!

(2274-5)17

And it is on this note of fragile unity that the second cantar of CMC ends.

4. alabarse /pesar: this is a very complex and important case¹⁸. The Infantes congratulate themselves on the Afrenta de Corpes, «Por los montes do yvan,          ellos ývanse alabando» (2757), and this is repeated soon afterwards (2763). There are three occurrences of «doliól el coraçón» or «pesól de coraçón» from those loyal to the Cid, followed by another alabando. Then come six occurrences of pesar, some referring to the Cid and others to King Alfonso, and this identity of reaction by the Cid and his King is rounded off by the latter's open statement, «Entre yo e myo Çid          pésanos de coraçón» (2959). The Infantes had failed to take into account the risk that Alfonso would side with the Cid over the Afrenta, and the firmness of this attitude comes as a shock, turning their self-congratulation to grief, «Ya les va pesando          a los yfantes de Carrión» (2985). This reversal of the Infantes' emotions -sudden from their point of view, but half-expected by the audience because of the poet's careful preparation- is emphasized by three repetitions during the Toledo cort: 3557, 3603, and the longest and most explicit:

Hya se van rrepintiendo          yfantes de Carrión, de lo que avién fecho          mucho rrepisos son; no lo querrién aver fecho          por quanto ha en Carrión.

(3568-70)

1. In the description of the Afrenta, the heroic style proper to battle scenes in epic is parodied by its use for a totally inappropriate subject¹⁹. This is particularly noticeable in the lines:

Canssados son de ferir          ellos amos a dos, ensayándos' amos          quál dará mejores colpes

(2745-6),

which, taken out of context, might be used of any pair of epic heroes fighting nobly against overwhelming odds. The application of the words to two armed men who are beating their defenceless wives emphasizes the gap between what they claim to be and what they are.

2. The use of epic enumeration in the court scene is similar to the use of heroic style in the Afrenta. The emphatic and stately enumeration of knightly accoutrements used elsewhere in the poem to add dignity (1966-71, 1987-9), here stresses the humiliation of the Infantes by listing what they have to surrender in order to repay the Cid:

Veriédes aduzir          tanto cavallo corredor, tanta gruessa mula,          tanto palafré de sazón, tanta buena espada          con toda guarnizón.

(3242-4)

3. A metaphor is made literal. Álvar Fáñez is twice called the Cid's right arm, «vos sodes el myo diestro braço» (753, cf. 810), and this metaphor is realized in action, «con él Mynaya Álbar Fáñez,          que nos' le parte de so braço» (1244, cf. 750)²⁰. Similarly, when Diego González claims at the Toledo cort that «de natura somos          de los condes más linpios» (3354), Martín Antolínez recalls the incident of the lion, when Diego González hid behind the beam of the wine-press and became so dirty that «más non vestist          el manto nin el brial» (3366).

4. A rhetorical question is turned against the Infantes in the court scene, just as Diego González's metaphor is. García Ordóñez tries to support their case by asking about the Cid's daughters «¿o quién gelas diera          por parejas o por veladas?» (3277). He expects no answer, but the most effective possible answer is given when envoys arrive from the heirs to the thrones of Navarre and Aragon, asking «que gelas diessen          a ondra e a bendiçión» (3400).

1. The sun is used on two symbolic levels. First:

Ya quiebran los albores          e vinié la mañana, yxié el sol,          ¡Dios, qué fermoso apuntava!

(456-7)

Dawns are fairly frequent in CMC, but not actual descriptions of the sun rising, and certainly not a comment by the poet²¹. Can it be merely a coincidence that this description and comment precede the Cid's first victory, at Castejón? We must also take into account the sunrise at the beginning of the Cid's successful Valencia campaign (1091), and at the scene of his pardon (2062, 2068)²².

A second symbolic level is found in the use of the sun as a simile, once for the Cid's daughters Elvira and -the name is significant- Sol (2333), three times for the dress of the Cid and his men at the Toledo cort (3074, 3087, 3493), and twice, by implication, for the swords Colada and Tizón (3177, 3649). The use of sunrise at crucial moments of the action heralds the Cid's triumph, and also -a point reinforced by the sun-similes- shows the Cid and his followers as forces of light²³.

2. The symbolism of the Cid's beard has been fully discussed by previous critics²⁴, so that nothing more than a reminder is needed here.

3. The swords symbolize the Cid's manly and martial qualities: «éstas yo las gané          a guisa de varón» (3154), he says to the Infantes, with the clear implication that they lose the swords by their unmanly behaviour²⁵. The description of the swords as «dulçes e tajadores» (3077) is also of interest; it comes at a point when they are intricately bound up with the Cid's honour and with his daughters, and they seem to take on a quality, dulçe, more appropriate to honour or the daughters than to swords.

4. The Cid's lion possesses symbolic value not because, as has been claimed, he owes anything to the lion of the bestiaries, but because the lion, a sovereign in the order of animals, recognizes in the Cid a sovereign among men²⁶. The Cid is not a king, but he has all the qualities of one, and the medieval belief in correspondences between different orders in the «Great Chain of Being» gave an unmistakable significance to the lion's submission:

El león quando lo vio,          assí envergonçó, ante myo Çid la cabeça          premió e el rrostro fincó; myo Çid don Rodrigo          al cuello lo tomó, e liévalo adestrando,          en la rred le metió.

(2298-2301)

Before this submission, the lion's escape had caused fear to all the Cid's followers: «en grant miedo se vieron          por medio de la cort» (2283). Despite the shared emotion of fear, the outcome marked the difference between the Infantes and the remainder of those present: the Cid's loyal followers mastered their fear and acted courageously:

Enbraçan los mantos          los del Campeador, e çercan el escaño          e fincan sobre so señor,

(2284-5)

while the Infantes behaved with ludicrous cowardice:

Ferrán Gonçález non vio allí dos' alçasse,          nin cámara abierta nin torre; metiós' só'l escaño,          tanto ovo el pavor. Diego Gonçalez          por la puerta salió, diziendo de la boca:          «¡Non veré Carrión!» Tras una viga lagar          metiós con grant pavor; el manto e el brial          todo suzio lo sacó.

(2286-91)

The inferiority of the Infantes, clearly demonstrated in this episode, is emphasized in later episodes where they are shown to be inferior first to a Moor, and then to women (3347-8, 3449-51).

Two objections may be raised to the arguments presented in this paper. First, are these repetitions and patterns merely the random product of oral-formulaic technique? Critics have shown that formulaic style may cause in Homeric and Middle English poetry similarities which would, if found in a modern poem, be deliberate²⁷. This explanation, however, will not do in the case of CMC. «Una grand ora penssó e comidió» occurs nowhere else in CMC, and nowhere in the Mocedades de Rodrigo, Roncesvalles or Siete Infantes de Lara. If we say that a certain formula was reserved for a certain kind of character in a certain kind of situation, then we are admitting deliberate artistic use. Approaching the problem in another way, if we say that the poet used a heroic style for the Afrenta de Corpes because that was the only one his formulaic technique allowed him to use, then we say that there is no distinction between a skilful epic poet and an unskilful one (in fact, there is a wide difference between the use of formulaic technique in CMC and that in the often clumsy Mocedades de Rodrigo).

Secondly -a more drastic objection- are these patterns invented by the critic? Their number and frequency, and the extent and complexity of some of them, makes this objection implausible. They are certainly not found (or invented) in the Mocedades; nor, as far as I am aware, are they found in many other epic poems whether in Spain or elsewhere.

If these patterns really are the work of the poet -whether of his conscious mind or of the unconscious skill that shapes so much of a poet's technique- three consequences emerge:

a) The case for unity of authorship is strengthened. The case for dual or multiple authorship has never looked very convincing, and these patterns seem to show a single controlling intelligence. The evidence here is not conclusive, but it raises a fairly strong presumption.

b) The case for written composition is strengthened; and here I part company with Edmund de Chasca. It might well be difficult for an oral poet to control patterns as sophisticated as those discussed in this article (and they are sophisticated in conception, even though their effect on an audience may be simple). Here, however, we are dependent on analogy: none of the modern Yugoslav oral epics accessible in translation has anything remotely resembling the wealth of patterns to be found in CMC²⁸. It is true that Homer has great sophistication and complexity, but in a different way from CMC; moreover, the oral composition of the Iliad and the Odyssey remains a matter of inference from the use of formulaic language. We are in a serious difficulty here, since the only epics whose oral composition is beyond doubt are those composed in the presence of, and recorded by, modern scholars; and such epics fall far short of Homer's quality. Whether we conclude that the modern Yugoslav epic, even in the mouth of its most skilful practitioners such as Salih Ugljanin, is a decadent and unrepresentative sample of oral poetry, or whether we conclude that Homer's skill shows the Iliad and Odyssey to be written and polished derivatives of an oral tradition, will largely depend on the preconceptions with which we approach the problem²⁹. It may, however, be significant -especially for students of CMC- that when Jean Rychner argued the case for oral composition of the medieval French chansons de geste, he excepted the Chanson de Roland from his arguments because of its unusual sophistication and literary skill³⁰. Of course, none of this weighs against oral diffusion of CMC, nor against the descent of the extant manuscript from a dictated oral text; the case for these seems to me to be proved³¹. But I find it hard to believe that a poet improvizing with the aid of a stock of formulas could have achieved the results that I have been describing; and I am strengthened in this view by the relatively low formulaic content of CMC³².

c) A style that is to some extent formulaic can usefully be subjected to the critical analysis appropriate to a work of art, though the techniques of analysis must vary just as the poet's technique varies. As Spearing shows, close reading of the type applied to Donne or Góngora, Eliot or Cernuda, is out of place in the study of orally-presented verse³³. The patterns for which we look must be both extensive and repeated. The poet dare not depend on nuances, or on the impact of a single line, still less of a single word.

To sum up: the style of the Cantar de Mio Cid, including its apparently formulaic material, has deliberate artistic aims which are carried out with great skill and striking success; the poem as a whole is carefully constructed in order to bring out the effects aimed at; and theme, structure and style are, as in all great works of art, inextricably linked³⁴.