central region, and it was adopted by poets in other parts
for lyric verse. Alfonso X of Castile (reigned 1252-1284)
could write prose in Castilian, but he must needs employ
Galician for his _Cantigas de Santa María_. The Portuguese
nobles, with King Diniz (reigned 1279-1325) at their head,
filled the idle hours of their bloody and passionate lives
by composing strangely abstract, conventional poems of
love and religion in the manner of the Provençal _canso,
dansa, balada_ and _pastorela_, which had had such a
luxuriant growth in Southern France in the eleventh and
twelfth centuries. A highly elaborated metrical system
mainly distinguishes these writers, but some of page xiii
their work catches a pleasing lilt which is supposed
to represent the imitation of songs of the people. The
popular element in the Galician productions is slight, but
it was to bear important fruit later, for its spirit is
that of the _serranas_ of Ruiz and Santillana, and of
_villancicos_ and eclogues in the sixteenth century.

It was probably in the neighborhood of 1350 that lyrics
began to be written in Castilian by the cultured classes
of Leon and Castile, who had previously thought Galician
the only proper tongue for that use, but the influence of
the Galician school persisted long after. The first real
lyric in Castilian is its offspring. This is the anonymous
_Razón feyta d'amor_ or _Aventura amorosa_ (probably
thirteenth century), a dainty story of the meeting of two
lovers. It is apparently an isolated example, ahead of its
time, unless, as is the case with the Castilian epic, more
poems are lost than extant. The often quoted _Cántica de