A history of Spanish literature - Cristo Raul

A HISTORY OF
SPANISH LITERATURE
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY
THE most ancient monuments of Castilian literature
can be referred to no time later than the twelfth century,
and they have been dated earlier with some
plausibility. As with men of Spanish stock, so with
their letters : the national idiosyncrasy is emphatic
almost violent. French literature is certainly more
is loftier and more
exquisite,
varied ;
more brilliant ; English
but in the capital qualities of originality, force^s^/
truth, and humour, the Castilian finds no superior. *
The Basques, who have survived innumerable onsets^,
(among them, the ridicule of Rabelais and the irony
of Cervantes), are held by some to be representatives
of the Stone-age folk who peopled the east, north-east,
and south of Spain. This notion is based mainly upon
the fact that all true Basque names for cutting instruments
are derived from the word aitz (flint). Howbeit,
the Basques vaunt no literary history in the true sense.
The Leloaren Cantua (Song of Leld) has been accepted as