For example, the stanza about
Coruncho Lopez, which was originally made at the gate of a venta by
a Miquelet, (63) who was conducting the said Lopez to the galleys
for a robbery. It is at present sung through the whole of the
peninsula, however insignificant it may sound to foreign ears:-
'Coruncho Lopez, gallant lad,
A smuggling he would ride;
He stole his father's ambling prad,
And therefore to the galleys sad
Coruncho now I guide.'
The couplets of the Gitanos are composed in the same off-hand
manner, and exactly resemble in metre the popular ditties of the
Spaniards. In spirit, however, as well as language, they are in
general widely different, as they mostly relate to the Gypsies and
their affairs, and not unfrequently abound with abuse of the Busne
or Spaniards. Many of these creations have, like the stanza of
Coruncho Lopez, been wafted over Spain amongst the Gypsy tribes,
and are even frequently repeated by the Spaniards themselves; at
least, by those who affect to imitate the phraseology of the
Gitanos. Those which appear in the present collection consist
partly of such couplets, and partly of such as we have ourselves
taken down, as soon as they originated, not unfrequently in the
midst of a circle of these singular people, dancing and singing to
their wild music.
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