The Lay of the Cid

punctilious, gallant hidalgo of the early seventeenth century, let him turn to the Cid of Guillem de Castro, or to Corneille's paragon. Don Quixote wisely said: "That there was a Cid there is no doubt, or Bernardo del Carpio either; but that they did the deeds men say they did, there is a doubt a-plenty." In the heroic heart of the Epic Cid one finds the simple nobility that later centuries have obscured with adornment.

THE LAY OF THE CID

CANTAR I

THE BANISHMENT OF THE CID

I.
He turned and looked upon them, and he wept very sore
As he saw the yawning gateway and the hasps wrenched off the door, And the pegs whereon no mantle nor coat of vair there hung. There perched no moulting goshawk, and there no falcon swung. My lord the Cid sighed deeply such grief was in his heart
And he spake well and wisely:
"Oh Thou, in Heaven that art
Our Father and our Master, now I give thanks to Thee.
Of their wickedness