Page:Tirant lo Blanch; a study of its authorship, principal sources and historical setting (IA cu31924026512263).pdf/124

 *quently a campaign to exterminate the Moors results, and William of Warwick becomes the commander of the English forces.

But all of the episode is not based on Guy of Warwick. We have seen in the beginning of the analysis that, after the Moors had been annihilated, William again returned to a hermitage. Up to this point Martorell followed his model rather faithfully, but thereafter he abandoned it. However, he continued the episode, drawing his material from a different source. In order to point out to the reader what parts of the episode are not based on the English romance, and at the same time to give a concrete example of the method followed by Martorell in the composition of his work, we shall note the procedure of the author in the continuation of this episode.

In the prologue of Lull's Libre del Orde d'Cauayleria Martorell had read of a great knight who likewise had retired to a hermitage, and doubtless this striking coincidence, which apparently had attracted his attention even before he began writing his romance, caused him to incorporate in the episode the incident related by Lull. The prologue recites how, in a certain country, a knight, who for a long time had been an honor to knighthood, finally realized that the end of his days was approaching, whereupon he decided to spend the rest of his life as a hermit. Accordingly he went to live in a dense forest. It was his custom to come every day to a clear spring under a large tree, where he was wont to contemplate and pray. Now it happened that a great king had announced an assembly of his court, and a certain mounted squire was proceeding on his way to attend that court in order that knighthood might be conferred upon him. Overcome by the fatigue of the journey, the squire fell asleep. His steed left the road, entered the wood, and came to a spring at a time when the hermit was there. The latter discontinued his