For still before the dead man fall the slain.
Death rides for Captain of the Men of Spain,
And their dead truth shall slay the living doubt.

The soul of the great epic, like the chief,
Conquers in aftertime on fields unknown.
Men hear today the horn of Roland blown
To match the thunder of the guns of France,
And nations with a heritage of grief
Follow their dead victorious in Romance.
______________________

INTRODUCTION

The importance of the Cid as Spain's bulwark against the Moors of
the eleventh century is exceeded by his importance to his modern
countrymen as the epitome of the noble and vigorous qualities that
made Spain great. Menendez y Pelayo has called him the symbol of
Spanish nationality in virtue of the fact that in him there were
united sobriety of intention and expression, simplicity at once
noble and familiar, ingenuous and easy courtesy, imagination
rather solid than brilliant, piety that was more active than
contemplative, genuine and soberly restrained affections, deep
conjugal devotion, a clear sense of justice, loyalty to his
sovereign tempered by the courage to protest against injustice to
himself, a strange and appealing confusion of the spirit of
chivalry and plebeian rudeness, innate probity rich in vigorous
and stern sincerity, and finally a vaguely sensible delicacy of
affection that is the inheritance of strong men and clean blood.
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