444 A charming little song by Gongora commences in the following manner:—
445 The poem commences as follows:—
The above is only about the half of the first period.
446 The singularity of the language must be perceptible even to those who possess only a slight knowledge of Spanish. The dedication commences as follows:—
447 The two concluding stanzas of Gongora’s Polyphemus are worthy to be transcribed as literary curiosities:—
448 Notices concerning the various editions of the works of Gongora, may be found in Dieze’s Remarks on Velasquez, p. 251. A selection from the works of this unsuccessful genius, whose real merit some critics have attempted to deny, was published by Don Ramon Fernandez, under the title of Poesias de D. Luis Gongora, Madrid 1787. The selection forms a small octavo volume.
449 Dieze calls the estilo culto the Spanish ornamental style; but this term is incorrect when employed to designate the particular style of Gongora’s school.
450 Among these illustrative works, are Salcedo Coronel’s diffuse Commentaries on Gongora’s Polyphemus y Soledades, printed in 1629 and 1636; and also the Lecciones solennes a las Obras de Luis de Gongora, by Joseph Pellicer de Salas, which appeared in 1630. See also Dieze’s Notes.
451 The fifth volume of the Parnaso Español is disfigured by a considerable number of Ladesma’s poems.
452 How pompously this poem commences in the original!—And yet how much in the romance style!
453 This rhapsody cannot be read without exciting astonishment.
454 The Gridonia is included in the Obras Posthumas Divinas y Humanas de Don Felix de Arteaga, Madrid 1641, 1 vol. octavo.
455 The collection which I have now before me, and which is entitled Varios y Honestos Entretenimientos, by Castillo Solorzano, (Mexico, 1625, in octavo), was, apparently, not the only publication of the kind which appeared in Mexico.
456 Velasquez has occasioned no small degree of confusion in this portion of the history of Spanish poetry. He first, according to the principles of French criticism, confounds all the dramatic writers of Spain in one class, and afterwards draws wide distinctions between them.
457 Obras Tragicas y Lyricas del Capitan Christoval de Virues, Madrid 1609, in octavo. It does not appear that they have ever been re-printed.
458 The following monologue, in which Semiramis wavers between the conflicting passions of love and ambition, will afford a specimen of the tragic style of Virues:—
459 He says in his prologue:—
460 For example in the following scene. The prince is surprised by his beloved Fulgencia, against whom he has been prepossessed by the treacherous hypocrisy of Casandra:—
461 Para Todos, Exemplos morales, humanos y divinos, en que se tratan diversas Ciencias, &c. por el Doctor Juan Perez de Montalvan, in quarto. In the copy which I have seen, the date of the year on the title-page is obliterated.
462 The historical drama, in which Montalvan has drawn the character of Philip II. bears the affected title of El segundo Seneca de España. The second Seneca, here alluded to, is no other than Philip himself. Montalvan has, on the contrary, described the Infant Don Carlos as a noisy blusterer. Philip summons Carlos to his presence in order to correct him:—
(Levantase furioso, y quierese ir.)
Philip then continues to admonish Don Carlos in a pompous tone of suppressed ill humour.
463 The comedy in which the character of Henry IV. appears, is entitled El Mariscalo de Viron. Henry and Marshal de Biron are rivals in a love affair. The Marshal, with the frankness of a soldier, confesses his attachment for the lady, and Henry relinquishes his suit. “And did this give you so much concern?” says Henry to the Marshal.
464 But these autos are included in the Para Todos. See note, page 447.
465 Relaciones de la vida del escudero Marcos de Obregon, &c. por el Maestro Vicente Espinel; Barcelona, 1618, in octavo.
467 Primera parte de la vida del Picaro Guzman de Alfarache, compuesta por Mattheo Aleman. Brussel. 1604, in 8vo. is the title of the oldest edition that I have seen. The words Primera parte have reference to the Continuation, which is the production of another author.
468 Besides those which are included in his Para todas, a separate collection was published under the title of Succesos y prodigios de Amor, en ocho novelas exemplares, por el Doctor Juan Perez de Montalvan. The sixth edition (that with which I am acquainted), was published at Seville in 1633, in 4to.
469 Those who wish to find a catalogue of Spanish novels and romances of middling and inferior merit, must turn to Blankenburg, who, in his appendix to Sulzer’s article Erzählung, enumerates them at considerable length. The list might be augmented by an examination of the collection of novels and romances in the library of the University of Göttingen.
470 A new edition of the Novelas entretenidas, compuestas por Doña Mariana de Caravajal y Saavedra, was published at Madrid so late as the year 1728.
471 In Spanish this phrase has a comical effect:—Entretenimientos en que divertas las perezosas noches del erizado invierno.
472 She says:—Admitas mi voluntad, perdonando los defectos de una tan mal cortada pluma, en la qual hallaras mayores deseos de servirte con doze comedias, en que conoscas lo affectuoso de mi deseo.
473 Mariana wrote as early as the reign of Charles V. and he died in the year 1623, in the ninetieth year of his age.
474 The title is:—Joannis Marianæ Historiæ, de rebus Hispaniæ, libri triginta. It has been frequently printed; and there is one very elegant edition in large folio, Hagae Comitum 1731. The Spanish names of persons and places are, however, latinized in a manner so artificial, as to render them no less unintelligible than the names in Cardinal Bembo’s History.
475 There is a beautiful edition of this historical work, published by patriotic subscription, in a series of small folio volumes, under the following title:—Historia general de España, que escribiò el P. Juan de Mariana, &c. Valencia, 1785.
476 The subjoined extract, which affords a specimen of Mariana’s historical style, is the commencement of his description of the battle, which was lost by King Roderick in conflict with the Arabs, and which was followed by the overthrow of the gothic monarchy:—
El movido del peligro y daño, y encendido en deseo de tomar emienda de lo pasado y de vengarse, apellidó todo el reyno. Mandó que todos los que fuesen de edad, acudiesen á las banderas. Amenazó con graves castigos á los que lo contrario hiciesen. Juntóse á este llamamiento gran número de gente: los que menos cuentan, dicen fueron pasados de cien mil combatientes. Pero con la larga paz, como acontece, mostrábanse ellos alegres y bravos, blasonaban y aun renegaban; mas eran cobardes á maravilla, sin esfuerzo y aun sin fuerzas para sufrir los trabajos y incomodidades de la guerra. La mayor parte iban desarmados, con hondas solamente ó bastones. Este fue el exército con que el Rey marchó la vuelta del Andalucía. Llegó por sus jornadas cerca de Xerez, donde el enemigo estaba alojado. Asentó sus reales y fortificólos en un llano por la parte que pasa el rio Guadalete. Los unos y los otros deseaban grandemente venir á las manos; los Moros orgullosos con la victoria; los Godos por vengarse, por su patria, hijos, mugeres y libertad no dudaban poner á riesgo las vidas, sin embargo que gran parte dellos sentian en sus corazones una tristeza extraordinaria, y un silencio qual suele caer á las veces como presagio del mal que ha de venir sobre algunos. Lib. vi. cap. 23.
477 The surname Villegas has given rise to many blunders respecting Quevedo and the celebrated Estèban Manuel de Villegas. A good abstract of the various biographical notices of Quevedo is prefixed to the fourth volume of the Parnaso Español.
479 These canciones and romances are contained in the great collection of the poems of Quevedo, published by the Gongorist Gonzales de Salas, under the Gongoristic title of El Parnaso Español, Monte en dos cumbres dividido, (that is to say, in two volumes.) A new, but very far from elegant, edition of this collection of Quevedo’s poems appeared at Madrid, in 1729, in quarto. It is divided into books, each of which bears the name of one of the muses.
480 For example, in the following song to a linnet, which is described as a singing and flying flower:—
481 For example, in the following song, which passes from one style to another:—
482 A specimen of this gypsey gibberish may be curious to those who are not acquainted with it:—
483 A new collection of this kind of gypsey romances, was published at Madrid in 1779, in octavo, under the title of Romances de Germania. Germania is the Spanish name for the gypsey race.
484 For example, one in which a young married man, on the third day after his nuptials, asks his spouse, how many years a man daily grows older in the matrimonial state?
485 See the collection of Salas, Musa II. &c.
486 This appears in the commencement of the following extract.
487 He earnestly condemns the Spanish imitation of the Arabian tournaments with pointed canes.
488 Quevedo’s Sueños, or Visions, which are now translated into almost every cultivated language in Europe, were shortly after their appearance, introduced into German literature by Moscherosch von Wilstedt, under the title of Gesichte Philanders von Sittewald. The romance of the Great Tacaño has also been translated into various languages.
489 Pero lo que mas me espantò, fue de ver los cuerpos de dos o tres mercadores, que se havian vestido las almas de revès, y tenian todos los cinco sentidos en las uñas de la mana derecha. Sueño del Juizio final, o de las Calaveras.
490 An elegant edition of these poems was published by Luis Joseph Velasquez, the author of the History of Spanish Poetry, under the title of—Poesias que publicò Dr. Francisco de Quevedo Villegas con el nombre de Bachiller Franc. de la Torre, &c. Madrid, 1753, in quarto. Velasquez has proved Quevedo to be the author of these compositions.
491 For example:—
492 The commencement of one of these Endechas may be transcribed as a specimen:—
493 The style of the following appears unobjectionable:—
494 The following is on modern Rome:—
495 For example, the following, which is addressed to Astræa:—
496 This may probably account for its insertion in the second volume of the Parnaso Español.
497 The third book of the first division of these poems, is dedicated to Fernandez de Velasco, the constable of Castile. In the dedicatory verses Villegas says:—
498 The edition which I have seen, is entitled, Amatorias de D. Esteban Manuel de Villegas. It is printed at Naxera, and on the title-page bears the date of 1620, and on the final page 1617.
501 In this ode Villegas says:—
502 For example, the following stanzas:—