Mexico and Chile; and in Chile there is usually the additional strophe at the end, called the despedida.[1]
Type A of the Porto-Rican décimas, therefore, seems to be the most important traditional, conventional, and popular type of décima. It is the usual traditional and conventional type of the religious décimas of the classic period, the only important New-Mexican Spanish type, and is also found in Chile, though with modifications. It is to be greatly regretted that more décimas have not been collected and published in other Spanish countries, where certainly the genre must exist. The 194 Porto-Rican octosyllabic décimas, 121 of which are of this traditional type, give sufficient evidence of the existence of this class of popular poetic compositions in the oral tradition of all Spanish countries. As the traditional Spanish ballad still lives wherever Spanish is spoken, the traditional poetic form called décima is without doubt to be found in the traditional poetry of all Spanish peoples.
The type of décima that is composed of an introductory quatrain, a cuartela or redondilla, plus four regular décima strophes, is the all-important traditional and conventional type, both in literary and popular tradition; but several other types developed together with it or directly from it. The Porto-Rican collection has all the types. The type of class B (introductory quatrain plus three instead of four regular décima strophes) may be an independently developed type, or type A with one strophe less, or, in the case of the Porto-Rican compositions, lost or forgotten. The type of the regular series of four décima strophes without the introductory quatrain may also be an independent development; but the Porto-Rican collectors may have forgotten the introduction, or tradition there may have lost it. In the "Romancero y Cancionero Sagrados" this type is not found at all. It is also to be noted that such a type does not seem to exist in New Mexico and Chile. There is some evidence, therefore, in support of the view that these Porto-Rican décimas of class C belong with class A, the introductory quatrain missing for one reason or another. As for the décimas which are composed of the introductory quatrain plus three, two, or a single décima strophe, it is not easy to determine, in the case of a collection like the present one, whether they are complete or fragmentary. Some are certainly complete, and with equal certainty one can say that some are fragmentary, and no one can say to what class they belonged originally. In the collection of décimas
- ↑ Lenz, op. cit., 146. In New Mexico we find one décima (No. 69) where there is at the end a quatrain, called despedida; but the introductory strophe is not a quatrain, but a six-line strophe. In New Mexico, as in Porto Rico (the aguinaldos) we frequently find this quatrain called la despedida after a series of quatrains or popular coplas. For another meaning of this term despedida in New-Mexican Spanish she "Romancero Nuevo-mejicano" (l.c., 84).
