Note 1.--This date is taken from the life of Ercilla prefixed to the
edition of the Araucana, of Madrid, 1776. The author of Ercilla's life
in the French Biographie Universelle fixes his birth at Bermeo, in
Biscay, in 1525. He was led into error as to the place by the collector
of the Parnaso Español: in assigning the year he confesses that he had
no foundation but his own conjecture. This spirit led him to fix a date
for our poet's death, which is uncertain.
Note 2.--Nicolaus Antonius. Bibl. Hisp. Nov. p. 395. Madrid, 1783. It is
a remarkable fact, that while Ercilla the poet is slightly mentioned in
this work, his father, whose labours are now forgotten, has nearly two
columns devoted to a notice of his life and writings.
Note 3.--The _Meninos_ were young gentlemen attached to the court. The
word is no longer used, though the office is preserved in that of the
king's pages.
Note 4.--The pedantic allusion, it is needless to say, is made by
Ercilla himself, in the taste of his age.
Note 5.--Herrera Historia general de los Hechos de los Castellanos en
las Islas y tierra firme del Mar Oceano. Dec. VIII. lib. VII. C. X. Our
poet is there mentioned as the famous poet and honourable gentleman, Don
Alonso de Ercilla.
Note 6.--Licentiate Cristoval Mosquera de Figueroa speaks of Ercilla's
prowess at the battle of Millarapue, and the engagement at Puren, where,
followed by eleven fellow-soldiers, he climbed up a mountain defended by
the Indians, and won the day. The writer of Ercilla's life quotes the
Chronicle of Philip II., by Calvete de la Estrella, as a testimonial of
the poet's exploits, but this must be a mistake. There exists no such
chronicle. Suarez de Figueroa only praises Don Alonso's gallant bearing
at a mock fight or field-day (p. 60.); but he was prejudiced against
him.
Note 7.--The last line of the inscription here alluded to,
Hic tandem stetimus nobis ubi defuit orbis,
was written by the French comic poet Regnard, in Lapland, in 1681.
Though the thought is liable to the imputation of gasconade, it is
spirited and beautiful. Ercilla's inscription was of a more unpretending
nature. He merely says:--
"Here, where no one had reached before, arrived Don Alonso de Ercilla,
who, first of all men, crossed this pass in a small boat without
ballast, attended only by ten companions, in the year of fifty-eight
above fifteen hundred, on the last day of February, at two o'clock in
the afternoon, returning afterwards to his companions whom he had left
behind."
This inscription forms a stanza of the Araucana. It is very prosaic.
This instance is not the only one where dates are mentioned in the poem.
In order to accommodate them to measure and rhyme, the author is often
driven to very curious shifts, and strange phraseology.
Note 8.--Luis de Salazar Advertencias Historicas, p. 13. It has however,
been remarked by the writer of Ercilla's life, that this author is wrong
in stating, that Elizabeth, Philip's consort, or Isabel de Valois, acted
as sponsor; she having died in 1568, and Ercilla having married in 1570,
according to Garibay. Possibly the queen alluded to was Philip's fourth
wife, Ann of Austria.
Note 9.--Dictionnaire Historique de Moreri, art. Ercilla. The subject of
the Araucana (says the critic) being novel, has suggested some novel
thoughts to the poet; but his poem is too long, and abounds with low
passages. There is great animation in his battles, but no invention, no
plot, no variety in his descriptions, no unity in his general outline of
the work, &c.
Note 10.--Biographie Univ., Paris, 1815, art. Ercilla. The merits of the
Araucana (says this writer) consist in a correct style, proper imagery,
beautiful descriptions, a plot constantly increasing in interest, a sort
of unity of action, and a spirit of heroism spread over the whole work.
The work is inferior to Tasso's Gerusalemme, and superior to Voltaire's
Henriade. There occur in it some feeble lines, and vulgar or
common-place thoughts.
Note 11.--Ercilla's poetical character is drawn by Hayley in the
following lines:--
With warmth more temperate, and in notes more clear,
That with Homeric richness fills the ear,
The brave Ercilla sounds, with potent breath,
His epic trumpet in the fields of death;
In scenes of savage war, when Spain unfurled
Her bloody banner o'er the Western world;
With all his country's virtues in his frame,
Without the base alloy that stained her name.
In danger's camp this military bard,
Whom Cynthia saw on his nocturnal guard,
Recorded, in his bold descriptive lay,
The various fortunes of the finished day;
Seizing the pen, while night's calm hours afford
A transient slumber to his satiate sword,
With noble justice his warm hand bestows
The meed of honour on his valiant foes.
Howe'er precluded, by his generous aim,
From high pretensions to inventive fame,
His strongly coloured scenes of sanguine strife,
His softer pictures, caught from Indian life,
Above the visionary forms of art,
Fire the awakened mind and melt the heart
_Hayley, Essay upon Epic Poetry_, Epistle 3.
Note 12.--It is a curious fact, that, to the Antwerp edition of the
Araucana, 157., and to several others, there is affixed an approbation
from captain Juan Gomez, praising Ercilla for his historical veracity,
which he, the captain, could vouch for, from his having resided
twenty-seven years in Peru, near the scene of the Araucan war. A strange
recommendation of an epic poem!
[Footnote 33: Araucana, canto XXXVI.]
[Footnote 34: Araucana, canto XIII.]
[Footnote 35: Cristobal Suarez de Figueroa, Hechos de Don Garcia
Hurtado de Mendoza, edit Madrid, 1613, p. 18.]
[Footnote 36: Araucana, Preface, p. IV. Madrid, 1776.]
[Footnote 37: Suarez de Figueroa, Hist. of Don Garcia, Madrid,
1613, pp. 103, 104.]
[Footnote 38: Arauc. canto XXXVII.]
[Footnote 39: Arauc. canto XXXVI.]
[Footnote 40: Suarez de Figueroa, pp. 104, 121.]
[Footnote 41: Ibid. p. 104.]
[Footnote 42: Ibid.]
[Footnote 43: Suarez de Figueroa, p. 104.]
[Footnote 44: Herrera, decada VII lib. I. cap. I. p. 2.]
[Footnote 45: Arauc. canto XXXVI.]
[Footnote 46: Arauc. canto XVIII.]
[Footnote 47: Araucana, canto XXXVII.]
[Footnote 48: _Avisos para Palacio_, p. 194.]
[Footnote 49: Most of the celebrated Spanish dramatists (_Lope de Vega,
Calderon, Moreto_, and others,) became clergymen in their old age, and
deplored that they had written for the stage.]
[Footnote 50: Araucana, canto XXXVII.]
[Footnote 51: Vol. II. p. 199.]
[Footnote 52: Quarterly Review, II.]
[Footnote 53: Voltaire, Essai sur la Poësie Epique, liv. 8.
Raynouard, p. 406.]
[Footnote 54: Bouterwek, Hist. of Spanish Literature, trans,
Lond. 1823, p. 412.]