There are tender domestic scenes between the Cid and his wife and his daughters, which serve to show how sincere was his affection and with what sympathetic humanity a great poet knew how to depict the tender natural relations which have an interest for all times. Some of these domestic scenes are not unworthy to be placed beside Homer's picture of the parting of Hector and Andromache, though there is more naive self-consciousness in the work of the Spanish bard, than in that of his more artistic colleague of the Grecian olden times. There is particularly a famous picture of the duties of noble ladies in Spain of this time and of the tender solicitude of a father for his daughters' innocence, that is quite beyond expectation at { 172} the hands of a poet whose forte was evidently war and its alarms, rather than the expression of the ethical qualities of home life. The following passage, descriptive of the Cid's parting from his wife, will give some idea of these qualities better than could be conveyed in any other way:
"Thou knowest well, señora, he said before he went, To parting from each other our love doth not consent; But love and joyance never may stand in duty's way, And when the king commandeth the noble must obey. Now let discretion guide thee, thou art of worthy name; While I am parted from thee, let none in thee find blame. Employ thy hours full wisely, and tend thy household well, Be never slothful, woe and death with idleness do dwell. Lay by thy costly dresses until I come again. For in the husband's absence let wives in dress be plain; And look well to thy daughters, nor let them be aware. _Lest they comprehend the danger because they see thy care, And lose unconscious innocence. At home they must abide, For the safety of the daughter is at the mother's side_. Be serious with thy servants, with strangers on thy guard, With friends be kind and friendly, and well thy household ward, To no one show my letters, thy best friends may not see. Lest reading them they also may guess of thine to me. And if good news they bring thee, and woman-like dost seek The sympathy of others, with thy daughters only speak.
Farewell, farewell, Jimena, the trumpet's call I hear! One last embrace, and then he mounts the steed without a peer."