[17] Why did Martorell change the name from Guy to William (Guillem)? The Catalan form for Guy is Guiu, which may have been easily confused in the MSS. with Guim, a contracted form of Guillem. If this substitution did not result from a confusion in names, the resemblance may have suggested Guillem, which was more popular and therefore may have seemed preferable.
[18] D.M. Menéndez y Pelayo, _Orígenes de la Novela_, Madrid, 1905; tomo I, p. ccliii.
[19] Juan Givanel Mas, _Estudio crítico de Tirant lo Blanch_, Madrid, 1912; p. 21.
[20] _Discursos leídos en la Real Academia de Buenas Letras de Barcelona en la recepción publica de D. Isidro Bonsoms y Sicart_, Barcelona, 1907; por Don Isidro Bonsoms y Sicart y Don Antonio Rubió y Lluch, p. 40.
There is a passage in the William of Warwick episode which we feel is a probable indication that the author was not English. When the hermit-king, as leader of the English forces, recaptured the castle of Alimburch from the Moors, in which the latter held many Christian ladies as captives, Johan de Varoych, son of Guillem, called to them in the following words: “Dones angleses, exiu defora e tornau en vostra primera libertat, car vengut es lo dia de la vostra redempcio.”[22] Why did the author say “Dones angleses”? Is it not probable that he for the moment had forgotten that the work was supposed to be a translation from the English, and addressed the ladies as a foreigner might have done?
[22] English ladies, come out and enjoy your former liberty, for the day of your redemption has come.
In spite of our efforts to take the author at his word, we feel moved to conclude that the work was not translated from an English original. We believe that a statement to that effect was made, because the beginning of _Tirant lo Blanch_ was a kind of reproduction of a romance in which an English knight was the hero, and because the events that are recounted in that first part took place in England. The declaration was perhaps suggested by examples of other authors of romances of chivalry who attributed their works to foreign sources.
But if there was no English original, was there some other work to be translated? In what language was it written? For lack of any other information, we shall have to conclude that it was in Catalan, for the contents of the final version clearly indicate that. This, then, was translated into Portuguese, and then into Catalan. How absurd! for it already existed in Catalan. It is evident that there was no translating to be done.