216 The following is the commencement of one of the odes on the battle of Lepanto, imitated from Horace’s Descende cælo, Caliope.
217 In the original, the extravagance of this pompous rodomontade is still more striking:
218 In the following, from one of his odes on the battle of Lepanto, the style of the Hebrew psalms is imitated with happy effect.
219 The whole ode may be transcribed here, as a specimen of Herrera’s lyric composition in the ode style:—
220 I have perused two different editions of Herrera’s poems: 1st. an old one, entitled, Versos de Fernando de Herrera, &c. Sevilla, 1619, in quarto; and 2nd. the more modern edition, already mentioned, published by Ramon Fernandez, which contains some poems not before printed.
223 It is annexed to Herrera’s edition of the Obras de Garcilaso de la Vega. Sevilla, 1580, 4to.
224 The following is the original Spanish of the passage here cited, with a part of the continuation, which is all in the same style:—
Conviene que la elegia sea candida, blanda, tierna, suave, delienda, tersa, clara i, si con esto se puede declarar, noble, congoxosa en los afetos, i que los mueva en toda parte, ni mui hinchada, ni mui umilde, no oscura con esquisitas sentencias i fabulas mui buscadas; que tenga frequente comiseracion, quexas, esclamaciones, apostrofos, prosopopeyas, escursos o parébases, el ornato della à de ser mas limpio i reluziente, que peinado i compuesto curiosamente i porque los escritores de versos amorosos o esperan, o desesperan, o deshazen sus pensamientos, i induzen otros nuevos, i los mudan i pervierten, o ruegan, o se quexan, o alegran, o alaban la hermosura de su dama, o esplican su propria vida, i cuentan sus fortunas con los demas sentimientos del animo, que ellos declaran en varias ocasiones; conviniendo que este genero de poesia sea misto, que aora habla el poeta, aora introduze otra persona.
225 There is a life of Luis de Leon, prefixed to the latest edition of his Obras propias y traducciones (Valencia, 1762, 8vo.) by Mayans y Siscar; it is, however, confusedly and carelessly written. The biographical memoir prefixed to the sixth volume of the Parnaso Español is better.
226 This statement occurs in the dedication prefixed to his explanation of the sixty-second Psalm, addressed to the Grand Inquisitor, Cardinal Don Caspar de Quiroga.
227 Apartado no solo de la conversacion y compañia de los hombres, sino tambien de la vista, por casi cinque años estuve cercado en una carcel y en tinieblas. Entonces gozava yo de tal quietud y alegria de animo, que agora muchas vezes echo menos, aviendo sido restituido a la luz, y gozando del trato de los hombres, que me son amigos.
228 See the dedication of his poems to Don Pedro Portocarrero.
229 How highly Cervantes esteemed Luis de Leon, may be seen from a passage in his Galatea, in which one of the characters says:—
230 The first ode commences thus:—
231 For example, in the following stanzas from the same ode:—
232 For example in the stanza:—
233 The following is the best half:—
235 The whole ode, which breathes a spirit of tender piety according to allegorical Christian ideas, well deserves to be once more re-printed:—
236 These poems, by Luis de Leon, which up to a late period remained unknown, may be found in the fifth volume of the Parnaso Español. They are all on religious subjects. The longest is entitled, Renunciacion al mundo, y conversion de un pecador: and is probably one of the earliest fruits of the youthful piety of the poet.
237 This observation occurs in the dedication to Pedro Portocarrero, already mentioned.
238 For example, the first eclogue:—
239 The ode Integer vitæ scelerisque purus commences as follows in Luis de Leon’s translation:—
241 These sermons are highly eulogized by Mayans y Siscar in the Oracion en que se exhorta a seguir la verdadera idea de la eloquencia Española; if indeed Mayans really be the author of that discourse. It is contained in the first volume of the Origenes de la lengua Esp. p. 199.
242 There is a copy of the second edition of Luis de Leon’s Perfecta Casada, printed at Salamanca in 1586, in quarto, in the library of the university of Göttingen.
243 Velasquez passes him over in silence. The Parnaso Español, tom. ii. contains some specimens of his poetry, together with a notice of his life.
244 The commencement of one of his elegies may serve as a specimen.
245 For example:—
246 Some of Gutierre de Cetina’s poems have been printed from manuscript by Sedano, in his Parnaso Español, vols. vii. viii. and ix. together with a short biographical notice of the author.
247 The following is an anacreontic song by this author:—
248 The following is one of them:—
249 The following stanza is from a cancione on his mistress’s hair. The lady’s tresses must have been of a very fiery red.
250 The fourth volume of the Parnaso Español contains a long eclogue by Pedro de Padilla.
251 Bibliographic notices of the works of Padilla, may be found in Dieze’s Remarks on Velasquez, p. 194.
252 Cervantes in the condemnation of the library of Don Quixote, exempts Gil Polo’s Diana enamorada, adding, that the book ought to be as much respected, “as though Apollo himself had written it.”
253 For instance, in the following:—
254 The following stanzas will afford an adequate idea of the colloquial song to which they belong, and which presents equal beauty throughout:—
255 The following is a specimen of rimas Franceses by Gil Polo:—
256 The following is by no means the worst of these enigmas.
Who would guess that the object alluded to is a horse’s tail?
257 A new and elegant edition of Gaspar Gil Polo’s Diana enamorada, enriched with a copious Commentary on the Canto de Turia, appeared at Madrid in 1778.
258 See Dieze’s edition of Velasquez, p. 419. The chapter on the idyl is totally distinct from that which treats of the eclogues of the Spaniards.
259 See my History of Italian Literature, vol. ii.
260 Dieze in his Remarks on Velasquez, p. 381, gives bibliographic notices of these, and of other epic productions of the Spaniards.
261 The title is rather curious:—Del Metamorphoseos de Ovidio, otava rima, traducido por Felipe Mey, &c. Con otras cosas del mesmo. Tarragona, 1586, in 8vo.
262 Further particulars relative to the history of these translations, may be found in Dieze’s Remarks on Velasquez, p. 198, &c.
263 Among others Velasquez.
264 For example:—
265 On this subject he says:—
266 The following, which is one of his most successful productions, must be transcribed at length, since the beauty of any detached passage would suffer from want of connection.
267 I have before me the same copy of which Dieze in his Remarks on Velasquez, p. 197, gives a bibliographic description. This copy, which did not pass the censorship of the Inquisition, is remarkable for a trick of the bookseller, who has affixed to it a title-page without a date, and at the end two leaves with a false privilege.