Page:Tirant lo Blanch; a study of its authorship, principal sources and historical setting (IA cu31924026512263).pdf/109

 his own, he did not make any changes. He added or omitted incidents at his own pleasure. Sometimes he made a reproduction, and at other times a copy with only such alterations as were necessary to make the passages conform to his own style, which presumably he considered an improvement over the original. Some few changes may have been caused by misreading or in the process of copying. Now and then we get the impression that he made certain alterations in order to avoid a literal transcription. A glance over the above passages shows that Martorell changed certain words. For "palaffre" he substituted "roci"; for "vestiments," "vestidures"; for "magre," "flach"; for "ausi" (heard), "hoy"; for "remembrar," "recordar" or "esser en recort de"; for "consirer," "entrar en gran pensament"; for "honrament," "honor"; for "tro," "fins"; for "en axi," "axi"; for "pus" in comparisons, "mes." A study of Martorell's vocabulary reveals that the words for which he made substitutions are lacking in it. Other similar cases may be found, but, to prove our point, we do not feel it necessary to make an exhaustive study of the vocabularies of these authors. We shall, however, call attention to the ending of the first parallel passages. Lull says: " e per les lagremes que gitaua, sos hulls foren apoquits." The corresponding passage of Martorell reads: "e per les moltes lagremes quels seus hulls destillauen li eren los hulls molt apoquits." There is much weeping in Tirant lo Blanch, and the author's favorite way of describing it is something like this: "los seus hulls destillaren vives lagremes." Without making an exhaustive search for this expression, we find twenty-*one instances in Tirant lo Blanch where the words "hulls," some form of "destillar," and "lagremes" are used to describe this emotional manifestation. He expresses it in other ways, but he never uses the verb "gitar," which is employed by Lull in this connection. Martorell