El romance de "El enamorado y la muerte" y otros textos afines en la literatura y el folclore catalanes

Abstract

Although the first versions of the romance of El enamorado y la Muerte (IGR: 0081) datefrom the 19th century and are located in the Catalan dominion, several indications point to a Castilian origin that would overcome at the end of the 15th century or shortly there after.In particular, its source of inspiration has been pointed out in a poem by Juan del Encina(inc. “Yo me estaba reposando, / durmiendo como solía”), but the differences between both compositions are as remarkable as their similarities, which make presuppose that the anonymous ballad was inspired by several precedents, among which could be found some texts in which Death appears into the room of his victim and wakes him up just after he has enjoyed a love relationship, dreamed or real, as it happens in fact in the Peregrinació del Venturós Pelegrí. This Catalan work probably dates from the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century and undoubtedly influenced a ballad to the death of Philip ii (inc. “El sol esconde sus rayos, / el resplandor que tenía”), which also is inspired in El enamorado y la Muerteand other elegies to the death of empresses or princesses. This complaint for the king’sdeath was published in Barcelona, it seems written by a Catalan author and shows that in1599 El enamorado y la Muerte was already known in Catalonia. Another traditional Catalansong, entitled La Mort i la donzella, is closely related to the plot of El enamorado y la Muerte,although its main source is the Representació de la Mort, a work from the mid-sixteenth century attributed to Jaume de Olesa.