Good love book: external structure

Image: Teresa Dandelion

Any narrative text has two types of structures, one internal and one external. In order to distinguish between them, it is important to know that the first is related to the plot narrated in the history of any work, that is, it focuses on the events that are told in it. However, the second, being able to be simpler, since it is observed with the naked eye, does not always have to be. In this case we refer to the organization of history, from what could be seen with the naked eye. However, in the case that concerns us here, knowing the external structure of Good love book it is considerably more complicated for various reasons.

First, because there are parts of the work that have not survived to this day. Second, because it is a fairly disorganized story, with different styles, that mixes events, stories, fables and facts. And third, because we actually don't even know if this was the original title. The one he currently has was a proposition of Menéndez Pidal in 1898, one of the great scholars of Spanish literature. Even so, in this beginning lesson from a TEACHER we will try to shed light on this topic. We started!

The Good love book it is the work of Juan Ruiz, the Archpriest of Hita, and was made between the years 1330 and 1343 under the late 14th century style of the Mester of clergy.

In this work we find a very striking characteristic, and it is the variety of styles, both in tone and in content and metrics. This, as we have commented, together with certain missing parts, makes the work of studying him very complex:

• In the Good love book we find diverse contents very different from each other, such as didactics, moralizing elements, love stories, examples, serranillas, lyricism, etc.
• With regard to the metric, we also have a lot of variety, such as stanzas ranging from sixteen verses to those known as zejelescas.
• In terms of tone, there is also a huge variety. This is the case of serious passages that contrast with other more profane, festive, and even religious.

In this other lesson from a TEACHER we discover a short summary of The Book of Good Love.

Image: Slideshare

We begin to study the external structure of the Good love book, and in a first part we could the introduction, the autobiography and the examples:

• The introduction or Foreword It is the part of the work that the author uses to explain to the reader the interpretation of the book. For this, he uses a prayer to God and the Virgin whom he asks to help him so that the work is understood. This part is written in prose and uses the cult sermon. Following them, he invokes divine favor and ends Saint Mary with lyrical joys.
• Continue with a author's fictional autobiography, told in the first person, which will become the common thread of the work. He recounts various loves with various women, as well as their social status, among which are the mountain women, a baker, a nun, a blackberry, etc. For all this she has had the help of the procurer or matchmaker known as Jogging, although her real name is Magpie.
• The next section consists of a group of examples that serve as moralizing teaching. They are apologists, stories and fables that close various episodes.

We now continue with what are the best known parts of the external structure of the Good love book by Juan Ruiz, that is:

• Author's dispute with Don Amor. This is an allegorical character, a kind of god who is accused of the capital sins that men commit in the name of love. However, this singular divine figure ends by explaining how to have consideration and gallantry with a woman.
• Next comes the most famous narration, which are the love affairs between doña Endrina and don Melón. Actually, the author adapts a humanistic medieval comedy, called Pamphilus.
• Finally, we can end with a section that has the battle between doña Cuaresma and don Carnal, which is considered an allegorical tale that parodies medieval deeds and raises certain moral values.

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We can consider a third part with several stories little related to each other that close the book, such as:

• The commentary of the work Ars amandi, written by the famous Latin poet, Ovid.
• Some follow Goliardish satires, whose tone is somewhat elevated, among which titles such as Against the property that money has wave Cantiga of the clerics of Talavera.
• Next, we find several religious compositions in lyrical tone, which are usually Marian, such as the Joys of Santa Maria.

The book ends with profane compositions in a lyrical tone again, somewhat contradictory, with cantigas de ciego and the death of Trotaconventos.