MARCH, AUSFAS. - He is the most representative poet of the Catalan Renaissance, born in Valenza about 1397, died there in 1459.
His 128 poems, divided into Cants de amor, de la mort e morals, suggest a belated troubadour rather than a Petrarchist, so evident is the influence of the poets of Provence. He sang of love, but with anguish and remorse, and found serenity only with the death of the woman he loved. The summit of his religious ascent is marked by the Cántico espiritual: an anxious longing for death and an invocation to God that the poet may believe and be saved. His style, predominantly austere, at times assumes movements of clear elegance, while, amid subtleties of thought and metrical complexities, it develops an assiduous and relentless inward exploration, the fruit of M.'s familiarity with scholasticism. Noteworthy is his devotion to the Virgin. Among Catalan poets, Verdaguer (v.), none attained his fame and greatness.