Ancora sull’episodio di Rachel e Vidas nel ‘Cantar de Mio Cid’ e nella sua prosificazione nella ‘Estoria de España’

At the beginning of the ‘Cantar de Mio Cid’, exiled by his king, deprived of all means, the hero is obliged to resort to deception to procure the money necessary to maintain his mesnada: he fills two coffers with sand and, in exchange for a loan of six hundred marks, gives them as a pledge to Rachel and Vidas, two ‘burgaleses’ usurers, making them believe that they contain gold coins. In this episode, comicality fulfils a twofold fundamental function, ‘repressive’ and ‘diversionary’. The paper proposes a re-examination of the prose versions of the episode offered by the ‘Versión crítica’ and the ‘Versión amplificada’ of the ‘Estoria de España’, highlighting the profound process of ‘moralisation’ to which the chroniclers, through omissions, attenuations, resemantizations, additions, accompanied by the neutralisation of the comic element, subject the episode.