Only a small number of fragments, which could be categorized (generously) as “medieval,” actually survive in modern ballad traditions. As it turns out, however, one could in fact hear hundreds of verses about the Cid being recited in the streets of Spanish towns and cities in the nineteenth century. But they were verses that survived precisely because those who Luzán called “la gente vulgar” were anything but mindless consumers; their baroque tastes and romantic preferences helped to shape a popular version of El Cid in theaters and on street corners in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This paper will explore examples of pliegos sueltos (broadsides from the hand-press and early machine-press eras) that attest to the popularity of Cidian ballads that trace their roots to the Spanish baroque rather than Medieval folklore.