Romance. Durandarte was the name of the sword of the legendary warrior, Roland. Milán’s rubric: “This romance that follows should be performed with the singer singing unadorned and the vihuela should go niether quickly nor slowly. The first part should be played twice as the text indicates to you, and the second part the same way”.
The poem was widely known in Spain. It is included in the second edition of Hernando del Castillo, Cancionero General, 2nd edition, (Valencia 1514) , not in the first edition. The full text is given in Binkley Spanish Romances (with English translation), 111. It is one of the songs on the first recording of vihuela songs by María Cid and Emilio Pujol in 1935, available on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFqdxdZ8-yc [accessed 26-04-2013] Pujol plays a guitar in this recording. Another version of the text, Poema 24 in the works of Juan Fernández de Heredia is a parody with the following text:
Romançe.
Duro en l’arte, duro en l’arte,
duro trobador forçado,
acordársete devía,
d’aquel coloquio passado,
quando em baxas invencio