Page:Tirant lo Blanch; a study of its authorship, principal sources and historical setting (IA cu31924026512263).pdf/101

 However, we accept in full faith the statement of the author that he is a Valencian. The contents of his work corroborate it. He knew that Ferdinand was Prince of Portugal; but did the latter ask him to translate the English original? We cannot believe that there was such a book in English, and consequently we doubt that Tirant was written at this request. We shall probably never be able to discover whether Martorell was personally acquainted with Prince Ferdinand, or whether he ever was in communication with him. The details of the dedicatory letter point in that direction, but perhaps that was only an ingenious way of the author to induce us to give credit to his statements. However that may be, there was probably some good reason for dedicating the work to the prince, but very likely we shall never know just what that reason was. If we cannot believe that there was an English original, and we doubt that the book was first written in Portuguese, then it is probable that we shall conclude that Tirant lo Blanch was first written in Catalan. Perhaps an attempt to prove that it is a Catalan production will help us solve the problem. In the composition of this book, material drawn from Catalan history and Catalan literature has been utilized. The former we shall discuss in other parts of this work, but we take up at this time two of the literary sources. First let us give a series of parallel passages from Raymond Lull's Libre del Orde d'Cauayleria and from Tirant lo Blanch in order to see what can be gained from a study of these. Libre del Orde d'Cauayleria           Tirant lo Blanch

1 En aquell temps en la entrada       1a Lo virtuos rey de Anglaterra del gran iuern sesdevench             perque a total oci e languiment que un gran Rey molt noble            nos sotsmetessen: delibera, puix

1 At that time, which was in          1 The noble King of England, the beginning of the severe winter,   in order that his people it happened that a great              should not give themselves up to