SOURCE: Macpherson, Ian. “Secret Language in the Cancioneros: Some Courtly Codes.” Bulletin of Hispanic Studies 62, no. 1 (January 1985): 51-63.

In the following essay, Macpherson highlights strong suggestions of coded signification and innuendo in cancionero poetry.

The title of this article contains a conscious stylistic device. By ‘code’ I wish to suggest not only ‘código’, a conventionalized set of principles, but also ‘cifra’, a system whereby meaning may be transferred from one person or one group of persons to another in a way which will deliberately exclude any person who does not have access to the key to an agreed system. By ‘secret’ I hope to imply not only ‘cryptic’, but also the sense in which Camilo José Cela employs it in his Diccionario secreto, where he defines ‘secreto’ as ‘Eufemismo de motivación moral o social. Venéreo. Erótico’.¹ The title itself is coded: its purpose is...