ABSTRACT
The older Castilian poetry was written for the people and depended for its interest chiefly upon its subject; the Catalan poetry was written by a special class for a special class, and sought to shine chiefly by its form. Castilian is rich in ballads, but exceedingly poor in the metrical combination in which the Provencal, like the Galician poetry, excelled. The Catalan chronicles are superior to the Castilian in literary execution and dramatic interest. Two of them deserve special notice. The first is the Chronicle of En Jaime of Aragon, surnamed el Conquistador. It was composed by the monarch himself, and continued up to a period immediately preceding his death in 1276. The second chronicle to which reference has been made above is, like that of En Jaime, the work of a man of action. Catalonia produced a celebrated Romance of Chivalry, Tirant lo Blanch, the work of Joanot Martorell.
