by Gutierre Díez de Games (flourished 15th century)
Translation by Anonymous / Unidentified Author
While Pero Niño was doing among the...
Language: English  after the Spanish (Español)
While Pero Niño was doing among the enemies of his lord as a wolf does among the sheep when there is no shepherd to defend them, it befell that an arrow stuck him in the neck. He received this wound at the beginning of the battle. The arrow had knit together his gorget and his neck; but such was his will to finish the enterprise that he had started that he felt not his wound, or hardly at all; only it hindered him much in the movement of the upper part of his body and in the turning of his neck. And this pricked him on the more to fight, so that in a few hours he had swept a path clean before him and had forced the enemy to withdraw over the bridge close by the city. And the thing that hindered him most was that there were many lance stumps and bolts in his shield. When he had got so far, the people of the city, seeing the havoc that he wrought, fired many crossbows at him, even as folk worry a bull that rushes out into the middle of the ring. He went forward with his face uncovered and a great bolt there found its mark, piercing his nostrils through most painfully, whereat he was dazed, but his daze lasted but little time. And with this great pain, he returned even more bravely to the fray, he pressed on more than ever before. At the gate of the bridge there were steps; and Pero Niño found himself sorely tested when he had to climb them. There he received many sword blows on the head and on the shoulders. At the last, he climbed them, cut himself a path and found himself so pressed against his enemies that sometimes they hit the bolt embedded in his nose, which made him suffer great pain. It happened even that one of them, seeking to cover himself, hit such a great blow on the bolt with his shield that it drove it further into his head than it had been before.
About the headline (FAQ)
Authorship:
- by Anonymous / Unidentified Author [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]
Based on:
- a text in Spanish (Español) by Gutierre Díez de Games (flourished 15th century), appears in El Victorial [text unavailable]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Edward Rushton , "While Pero Niño was doing among the enemies of his lord
", 2004 [baritone and piano], from Spanish Tragedy, no. 3. [text verified 1 time]
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2012-04-01
Line count: 27
Word count: 350