SAN JUAN DE LA CRUZ. St. John of the Cross (in the world, Juan de Yepes
y Álvarez) was like St. Theresa a Carmelite, and like her also one of
the most illustrious of the mystics and an energetic monastic reformer.
His prose works of contemplative mysticism gained him the title of the
_Ecstatic Doctor_. Of his poems, but few in number, the best is the
_Canción_ printed here, in which we see illustrated the part played by
the _Song of Solomon_ in the development of a highly sensuous element in
Spanish mysticism. Cf. _Biblioteca de autores españoles_, vol. 27, and
an ed. of the poems by W. Storck (1854); and see Ticknor, I, 208.
*Page 105.*—l. 21. David Lewis has made a rhythmical version in English
of this beautiful poem.
PEDRO MALÓN DE CHAIDE. An Augustinian mystic with ascetic tendencies.
The present verses are taken from his metrical paraphrase of the _Song
of Solomon_. Cf. _Biblioteca de autores españoles_, vol. 27.
*Page 107.*—l. 20. *escuro*, i.e., *oscuro*.
JUAN DE TIMONEDA. A Valencian bookseller and one of the earliest
playwrights of the sixteenth century, successful especially in his
_pasos_. He attempted the tale in his _Patrañuelo_, a collection of some
twenty stories, and in the _Rosa de romances_ (1573) published a
collection of the ballads of other poets, along with lyrics of his own
composition. Cf. Ticknor, III, 81 ff.
*Page 108.*—l. 22. *vella*, i.e., *verla*.
FRANCISCO DE FIGUEROA. A native of Alcalá de Henares who went to Italy
as a soldier and there spent a good part of his life, writing verse in
both Spanish and Italian. He was successful in the pastoral, and firmly
established blank verse (the _verso suelto_) in Castilian. His eclogue
_Thyrsis_ was the first composition in Spanish wholly in that metrical
form. Only a part of his poems are preserved, as at his death he seems
to have ordered them to be destroyed. Cf. the _Biblioteca de autores
españoles_, vol. 42; the _Colección Fernández_, vol. 20; Ticknor, III, 5
ff.
LUIS BARAHONA DE SOTO. Enjoyed much fame with his contemporaries for his
_Lágrimas de Angelica_, a continuation of the story in the Italian epic
_Orlando Furioso_. Some pleasing lyrics of his are found in the _Flores
de poetas ilustres_ of Espinosa (Valladolid, 1604); cf. also vol. II of
the _Líricos del siglo XVI_ in the _Biblioteca de autores españoles_.
SONETO: Á CRISTO CRUCIFICADO. This beautiful sonnet has been ascribed
without warrant to St. Theresa, St. Ignatius Loyola, St. Francis Xavier
and others. It remains anonymous; cf. Foulché-Delbose in the _Revue
hispanique_, II, 120 ff. There is an English poetical version of it,
attributed to Dryden (“_O God, thou art the object of my love_,” etc.);
cf. also J. Y. Gibson’s version (_The Cid Ballads_, etc., London, 1887,
II, 144) and the Latin hymn, “_Deus ego te amo_.” It is printed with the
works of St. Theresa in the _Biblioteca de autores españoles_.
BENITO ARIAS MONTANO. A theologian of note and the friend of Luis de
León. Cf. vol. II, p. 502 of the _Líricos del siglo XVI_ in the
_Biblioteca de autores españoles_.
ROMANCES. In _romances_ or ballads, Spain is the richest of all lands.
During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries particularly, there
appeared many collections (_romanceros_) of these short lyrico-narrative
poems, dealing with subjects drawn from the history—more or less
legendary—of Spain and of France, and with subjects purely chivalrous
and erotic in nature. The oldest and most typical of the Spanish ballads
have been edited by Wolf and Hoffman in their _Primavera y flor de
romances_, Berlin, 1856 (reprinted by Menéndez y Pelayo in his
_Antología_, vols. 8 and 9), and practically the whole of them are to be
found in A. Durán’s _Romancero General_, Madrid, 1849, 1851 (vols. 10
and 16 of the _Biblioteca de autores españoles_). The great majority of
the _romances_ are in octosyllabic lines bearing the stress on the
seventh syllable and having assonance—that is, vowel rhyme only, as
distinguished from vowel and consonant rhyme—in the alternate lines. At
one time it was believed that the _romances_ were of very ancient
origin, although written down only at the end of the fifteenth and in
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. As a matter of fact, most of
them are rather artificial in nature, and in composition belong to the
period when they were written. Gaston Paris maintains, however, that a
number of them deal with detached episodes from old epic poems, and
there seems to be ample evidence to prove his assertion. Cf. G. Paris in
the _Journal des savants_, mai et juin, 1898 (a review of
Menéndez-Pidal’s _Leyenda de los Infantes de Lara_); Milá y Fontanals
_De la poesía heroico-popular castellana_ (in his _Obras completas_,
vol. 7, Barcelona, 1896); Ticknor, I, 95 ff.; F. Wolf, _Ueber die
Romanzen-poesie der Spanier_ (in his _Studien_, etc., Berlin, 1859, pp.
304 ff.); R. Menéndez-Pidal, _La leyenda de los Infantes de Lara_,
Madrid, 1896; Baist in Gröber’s _Grundriss_, II, 2, pp. 430 ff. Many of
the ballads have been translated into English by J. G. Lockhart and
others.
*Page 112.*—l. 11. For the subject, cf. the note to p. 100, l. 26. See
the English poetical version of J. G. Lockhart in his _Ancient Spanish
Ballads_, New York, 1856, pp. 4 f.
l. 19. *de cansado*, _from weariness_.
l. 26. *velle*, i.e., *verle*.—*mancilla*, _pity_.
*Page 114.*—l. 10. *Bernardo del Carpio*: Largely a fictitious figure
invented in Spain to take the place of the Roland of French epic poetry,
when the latter became known in the Spanish peninsula. Bernardo is
represented as the illegitimate son of a Conde de Saldaña and the sister
of Alfonso el Casto, king of Asturias. Now grown up and a doughty
warrior who has triumphed over the king’s French enemies, Bernardo
demands the release of his father, imprisoned all these years by the
king. The king requires certain concessions of Bernardo, and then orders
the release of the count. The latter has died in the meantime, and
Alfonso delivers over only the dead body. Cf. Milá y Fontanals, _De la
poesía heroico-popular_, pp. 130 ff.
*Page 115.*—l. 25. Note the change from _asonantes_ to rhymed octaves,
indicating a certainly late origin for this part of the ballad.
*Page 116.*—l. 6. Lockhart, _l. c._, has a version of this _romance_.
l. 7. A ballad dealing with an episode of the second part of the tragic
history of the seven Infantes (nobles) of Lara (cf. Menéndez-Pidal, _La
leyenda de los Infantes de Lara_). At the instance of their aunt, Doña
Lambra, and through the treachery of their uncle, Don Rodrigo, the
Infantes are delivered into the hands of the Saracens, who slay them.
Their father Gonzalo Gustioz (Gustos) had previously been betrayed into
the hands of the Moors by the same Don Rodrigo. After some years,
Gonzalo is released and returns to Lara, whither he is later followed by
his illegitimate half-Moorish son, Mudarra, who is to take vengeance for
the death of his half-brothers and the injury done to his father. There
is a modern poetical version of the story of Mudarra (_El Moro
expósito_) by the Duke of Rivas (cf. p. 258). Cf. Lockhart’s
translation: “To the chase goes Rodrigo with hound and with hawk.”
*Page 117.*—l. 22. A considerable number of the ballads deal with the
story of the greatest of the old Spanish heroes, Rodrigo Diaz de Bivar,
El Cid († 1099). The present one is interesting as giving a picture of a
wedding in high life in the fifteenth or the sixteenth century. Cf. the
translation of Lockhart, _l. c._, p. 48.
l. 25. *afijados*, i.e., *ahijados*.
l. 27. *Laín Calvo*: the Cid’s father.
*Page 118.*—l. 3. *polido*, i.e., *pulido*.
l. 16. *Fuyendo*, i.e., *huyendo*.—*mochachos*, i.e., *muchachos*.
l. 19. *fembras*, i.e., *hembras*.
l. 29. *homildosa*, i.e., *humildosa*.
l. 31. *marquesota*, _a high collar of linen_.
*Page 119.*—l. 7. *Fablándole*, i.e., *Hablándole*.
l. 8. *fabla*, i.e., *habla*.
l. 10. *faz*, i.e., *hace*.
l. 15. The story of the Cid’s pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostella,
after his marriage to Jimena (the _Chimène_ of Corneille), and of his
meeting with the leper who proves to be Lazarus, is told in the _Crónica
rimada del Cid_, a document which in its present form belongs to the
second half of the thirteenth century. Our ballad has the essentials of
the story there told. Cf. Milá y Fontanals, _De la poesía
heroico-popular_, pp. 219 ff., and see Lockhart’s version.
*Page 120.*—l. 3. *fidalgos*, i.e., *hidalgos*.
l. 14. *d’ello se serviría*, i.e., _he would requite it_.
l. 21. *ficiera*, i.e., *hiciera*.
*Page 122.*—l. 9. *Martín González*: the champion of the king of Aragon,
whom the Cid, as representative of the king of Castile, was to meet in
battle upon his return from his pilgrimage.
l. 11. This _romance_ deals with the sad history of Blanche of Bourbon,
the French wife of Pedro el Cruel, whom he deserted for his mistress,
María de Padilla. Blanche was poisoned in 1366. Cf. Lockhart’s version
and the accompanying note.
*Page 124.*—l. 1. *sospiros*, i.e., *suspiros*.
l. 2. *terné*, i.e., *tendré*.
l. 8. The _Moorish ballads_ are more romantic and lyric, as a rule, than
those dealing with the purely Christian side of Spanish history. This
one on the conquest of Alhama—a city of the province of Granada, taken
from the Moors by the marquis of Cadiz, Feb. 28, 1482—has been done into
English verse by Byron (Oxford edition, 1896, p. 97), who wrongly
translated the refrain as “_Woe is me, Alhama_.”—*el rey moro*: Muley
Hassan, the father of Boabdil.
*Page 124.*—l. 20. *el Zacatín*: a street of Granada now leading to the
Plaza Nueva.
*Page 125.*—l. 7. *batalla*, _battalion_.
l. 10. *hablara*: as numerous instances have already shown the verbal
form in *-ara*, *-iera* is regularly used in the ballad as an aorist or
preterite of the indicative. This use is a living one.
l. 24. *Abencerrajes*: one of the two leading tribes among the Moors.
They were dominant until the fifteenth century, when, assembled in one
of the courts of the Alhambra, they were there murdered by their rivals,
the Cegríes. Cf. _Le dernier des Abencerrages_ of Chateaubriand and the
modern Spanish poem _Granada_ of Zorrilla.
l. 33. Byron adds stanzas from another ballad.
*Page 126.*—l. 1. The French epic poems dealing with Charlemagne and his
peers early became favorites in Spain, and before long received a
peculiarly Spanish treatment. Thus the original French Roland was
elaborated into a Spanish hero, Bernardo del Carpio. The present
romantic ballad, however, shows no Spanish modification of this kind.
The vision of Lady Alda (the _Aude_ of later French epic verse) reminds
one of Kriemhild’s vision in the _Nibelungenlied_. Cf. the English
version of Lockhart, _l. c._, p. 124, and that in Ticknor, I, 121; and
the German poem of Uhland, _Roland und Aude_.
l. 4. *Para la acompañar*: the older order of pronouns.
*Page 127.*—l. 2. *vide*, i.e., *ví*.
l. 6. There may be an allusion here to the old Spanish custom according
to which a refugee had sanctuary under the cloak or skirt of a lady.
l. 17. *sedes*, i.e., *sois*.
*Page 128.*—l. 1. A ballad from the _Cancionero_ of Antwerp, 1555,
printed in the _Romancero General_, I, 161. Cf. Lockhart’s version, _l.
c._, p. 147.
l. 15. The _Rosa fresca_ and the _Fonte-frida_ are the most beautiful of
the erotic ballads. They are found in various _Romanceros_ and
_Cancioneros_. Cf. Wolf and Hoffman, _Primavera y flor_, etc., II, pp.
18 ff. and the _Romancero general_, II; and see Ticknor, I, 110 ff.
(with translations) and Baist in Groeber’s _Grundriss_, II, 2, p. 433.
See the translations of these ballads by J. Y. Gibson, _The Cid
Ballads_, etc., London, 1887, II, 81 ff.
l. 23. *Enviastes*, i.e., *Enviasteis*.
*Page 129.*—l. 2. *érades*, i.e., *erais*.
l. 12. *Fonte-frida*, i.e., *Fuente-fría*.
*Page 130.*—l. 8. From the _Romancero general_ of 1604.
BALTASAR DE ALCÁZAR. A Sevillan poet with strongly marked epigrammatic
tendencies, natural in tone and witty. Cf. ed. of his _Poesías_,
Seville, 1878.
*Page 131.*—l. 4. *dalle*, i.e., *darle*.
l. 28. *efeto*, i.e., *efecto*.
MIGUEL DE CERVANTES SAAVEDRA. The author of the famous _Don Quijote_ and
a dramatist of considerable power, Cervantes does not occupy a high rank
as a lyric poet. His _Poesías sueltas_—largely sonnets and occasional in
their nature—may be found in vol. I of the _Biblioteca de autores
españoles_, pp. 705 ff. Cf. Ticknor, I, 90 ff.; the biography by
Fernández de Navarrete; and his _Obras completas_ (1863-64). The poems
here printed occur in the _Don Quijote_.
*Page 133.*—l. 5. This poem is found in the _Don Quijote_, I, chapter
XXVII.
l. 17. *repuna*, i.e., *repugna*.
*Page 134.*—l. 9. A _canción_ from the _Don Quijote_, I, chapter XLIII.
l. 16. *Palinuro*: Palinurus, the Trojan pilot; cf. _Æneid_, Book II.
l. 27. *Al punto que*: equivalent to *El punto á que*.
*Page 135.*—l. 1. From the _Don Quijote_, I, chapter XL.
l. 15. From the _Don Quijote_, II, chapter XVIII. A good example of the
artificiality of the _Glosa_.
THE ARGENSOLAS. Aragonese of Italian descent, Lupercio and Bartolomeo
Argensola occupy a high rank among the lyric poets of the beginning of
the seventeenth century. Lupercio also essayed the drama, but with
little success. The _Rimas_ of the brothers, first published by the son
of Lupercio in 1634, show in them an influence of the literature of
their ancestral land, both modern and ancient, and above all the
influence of Horace. They opposed the Gongoristic movement and adopted
only sane and natural methods. Lupercio’s translation of the _Beatus
ille_ and Bartolomeo’s sonnet to _Providence_ (p. 140) are among their
very best productions. Cf. vol. II of _Líricos del siglo XVI_, in the
_Biblioteca de autores españoles_; Ticknor, III, 31 ff.
*Page 137.*—l. 14. *Lo demás*, etc., _As for the rest, let it kill the
hunger of the mastiffs_; i.e., _to the deuce with it_.
l. 15. Cf. Horace, _Epodon, Carmen_ II.
*Page 138.*—l. 11. *propria*, i.e., *propia*.
l. 22. *Mormurios*: i.e., *Murmurios*.
*Page 139.*—l. 4. *Pullés*, _Apulian_.
l. 15. *Carpacio*, _the Carpathian mountains_.
*Page 141.*—l. 2. *sepoltura*, i.e., *sepultura*.
LUIS DE ARGOTE Y GÓNGORA. Góngora is chiefly remembered as the founder
of _culteranismo_, that bombastic and obscure style which invaded
Spanish literature at the end of the sixteenth century and which is
marked by traits similar to those of Marinism in Italy, of Euphuism in
England and of _préciosité_ in France. In his earlier period, Góngora
imitated Herrera and wrote poems free from affectation. It is in his
later manner that he reaches the height of extravagance in metaphor and
that general obscurity of expression which is exemplified by the
selection here given from his _Soledades_. See his verse in vol. XXXII
(_Poesías líricas del siglo XVI_) of the _Biblioteca de autores
españoles_, which is supplemented by unedited poems published by H.
Rennert in the _Revue hispanique_, vol. IV. Cf. also Archdeacon
Churton’s _Góngora, an Historical and Critical Essay_, etc., and the
English verse translations there given.
*Page 141.*—l. 16. *sus ojos*, i.e., _her beloved_.
*Page 143.*—l. 1. This first of the _Solitudes_, although a mass of
verbal absurdities, was rendered into English verse by Thomas Stanley;
cf. the ed. of the latter’s poems by Brydge (1814).
*Page 144.*—l. 6. *Quien*, etc.: possibly an attack upon Quevedo, at
first a vigorous enemy of Gongorism. It may rather apply to Pedro de
Valencia, a contemporary scholar, who was one of the first to arraign
Góngora for his methods in the _Solitudes_.
CONDE DE VILLAMEDIANA. A noble of the court of Philip IV., and a
disciple of Góngora. He is said to have loved the queen—a daughter of
Henry IV. of France—and on that account to have been assassinated by
order of Philip. The sonnet on p. 144 may contain an allusion to this
love. His verse is printed in vol. II of _Líricos del siglo XVI_ (in the
_Biblioteca de autores españoles_). Cf. Ticknor, III, 23 ff.
*Page 145.*—l. 12. *Calderón* was a courtier constantly attacked by
Villamediana.
VICENTE ESPINEL. Noted as the author of the picaresque novel _Marcos de
Obregón_, Espinel was also a lyric poet with clear Italian tendencies,
as his _Diversas rimas_, Madrid, 1591, show. He is said to have
invented, or at least to have revived the use of the _décimas_, a form
utilized in the _letrilla_ on p. 146. Cf. Ticknor, III, 5.
LOPE FÉLIX DE VEGA CARPIO. One of the marvels of the modern literary
world and one of the greatest writers that Spain has produced. Renowned
chiefly as a dramatist of the _siglo de oro_ period, he composed more
than two thousand plays of various kinds. As a lyric poet, he possessed
talents of the highest order, a fact amply attested by the poems
scattered through his dramas and other productions and by those brought
together in the volume _Obras no dramáticas de Lope de Vega_ of the
_Biblioteca de autores españoles_. His works are in process of
publication by the Spanish Academy, under the editorship of Menéndez y
Pelayo. A considerable number of them may be found in four volumes of
the _Biblioteca de autores españoles_. Cf. Barrera’s _Nueva biografía de
Lope de Vega_ prefixed to vol. I of the Academy edition; and Ticknor,
II, 152 ff.; Fitzmaurice-Kelly, _Spanish Literature_ (New York, 1898),
pp. 241 ff.
*Page 147.*—l. 26. A lullaby sung by Mary in the pastoral _Los pastores
de Belén_. Cf. the translation in Ticknor, II, 177.
*Page 151.*—l. 9. Dom Sebastian, king of Portugal, was slain and his
army destroyed while engaged on an expedition in Morocco (1578).
l. 20. *asillo*, i.e., *asirlo*.
*Page 152.*—l. 1. Translated by Longfellow (Riverside ed., 1886, VI,
204).
l. 4. *escuras*, i.e., *oscuras*.
l. 10. *agora*, i.e., *ahora*.
l. 15. Translated by Longfellow, _l. c._, p. 203.
*Page 153.*—l. 1. A satire on the affected vocabulary of some of the
writers of the _siglo de oro_, which is imitated in the nonsense uttered
by the maid. Throughout his works Garcilaso’s diction is eminently
Castilian.
l. 12. *habemos*: older and fuller form of *hemos*.
l. 14. *Vizcaya*: where, of course, Basque and not Spanish is the
popular speech.
l. 15. There is an English poetical version of this sonnet by J. Y.
Gibson. Voiture’s French _Rondeau: Ma foy, c’est fait de moy, car
Isabeau_, is of the same class of literature. Cf. Iriarte’s sonnet, p.
227.
JOSÉ DE VALDIVIELSO (or VALDIVIESO). The author of some _autos
sacramentales_ and of a long poetical _Vida de San José_, but chiefly
noteworthy as a writer of melodious religious lyrics. Cf. his _Romancero
espiritual_, Madrid, 1880.
PEDRO DE ESPINOSA. The editor of an anthology of lyrics,—_Flores de
poetas ilustres de España_, 1605 (see the reprint in the _Biblioteca de
autores españoles_, vol. 42)—and himself a lyric and narrative poet of
some merit. He includes some of his own lyrics in the _Flores_, along
with selected poems of some thirty-five other writers. The idyll, _La
fábrica del Genil_, is printed in full in vol. 29 of the _Biblioteca de
autores españoles_.
RODRIGO CARO. An antiquarian and the probable author of the ode on
_Itálica_—a Roman city near Seville—which was long attributed to Rioja
(cf. p. 170). Cf. Sismondi, _Historia de la literatura española_
(Spanish translation), Seville, 1842, vol. II, p. 173; R. Caro, _Obras
inéditas_, Seville, 1885.
JUAN DE JÁUREGUI. Noted for his excellent Spanish version of Tasso’s
_Aminta_, Jáuregui was at first a bitter opponent of Gongorism, as
appears in the preface to his _Rimas_ (1618). In his later narrative
poem _Orfeo_, and in his translation of Lucan’s _Pharsalia_, he
succumbed to the influence of that very style. The _silva_ from which a
selection is given here is his best lyric. Cf. vol. II, pp. 18 ff. of
the _Líricos del siglo XVI_ in the _Biblioteca de autores españoles_;
Ticknor, III, 33 ff.
FRANCISCO GÓMEZ DE QUEVEDO. Quevedo played an important part in the
public life of his time, but is famous mainly for his picaresque novel,
_El gran tacaño_, and for his mordant satirical poems. At first he
sought to stem the tide of Gongorism, but in his later works he let
himself float with the current. See his poems in the _Biblioteca de
autores españoles_, vol. 69, and cf. Ticknor II, 274 ff; E. Mérimée,
_Essai sur la vie et les œuvres de Francisco de Quevedo_, Paris, 1886.
His collected works are now being published by the _Sociedad de
bibliófilos andaluces_.
*Page 159.*—l. 18. Cf. a similar poem by Hita in the _Biblioteca de
autores españoles_, vol. 57, p. 241.
*Page 160.*—l. 28. *Doña Blanca de Castilla*: daughter of Alfonso IX. of
Castille, wife of Louis XIII. of France, mother of St. Louis; died in
1252. She wielded much influence in state affairs.
l. 33. This stanza illustrates Quevedo’s tendency toward cultism and
conceits.
*Page 162.*—l. 12. *Ovidio Nasón*: a pun on Ovid’s name, due to its
resemblance to Latin _nasus_.
l. 16. *naricismo*, _nosiness_.
l. 18. *Anás*: cf. St. Luke iii. 2, etc.
*Page 163.*—l. 1. This epistle was addressed to Olivares († 1645), the
favorite and minister of Philip IV.
*Page 164.*—l. 21. *mal hablada*, _rude-tongued_.
l. 22. This sonnet contains a prophecy which recent events have
consummated. *Un godo*: Pelayo, who, after the defeat of Roderick the
Goth, gathered about him in the cave of Covadonga in Asturias the
remnants of the Spanish army, and began the work of reconquest.
l. 24. *Betis*: the Guadalquivir.—*Genil*: a river of the province of
Granada.
*Page 165.*—l. 1. *Navarra*: Navarre was annexed by Ferdinand the
Catholic in 1512.
l. 2. *casamiento*: i.e., the marriage of Ferdinand of Aragon with
Isabella of Castile and Leon. Sicily belonged to the crown of Aragon at
the time of the marriage; Naples was formally annexed to it in 1504;
Milan was acquired during the struggle between France and Spain in
northern Italy.
l. 5. *Muerte infeliz*: upon the death of Dom Sebastian, king of
Portugal, who was slain in Morocco in 1578, the Portuguese crown was
assumed by his uncle Enrique. The latter died without an heir in 1580,
and Philip II. annexed Portugal to Spain.
l. 6. *Godos*: i.e., the Spaniards as descendants of the Visigoths.
ll. 8-10. An imitation of Seneca in the _Epistolae ad Lucilium_: “_Quod
unus populus eripuerit omnibus, facilius uni ab omnibus eripi posse._”
EL BACHILLER DE LA TORRE. In 1631 Quevedo published a small volume of
poems, declaring them to be the work of a Bachiller Francisco de la
Torre. L. J. Velázquez, who reprinted the poems at Madrid, 1753,
maintained that they were Quevedo’s own. An Italian influence is clear
in them, and it is probable that they were composed by the Francisco de
la Torre to whom Quevedo ascribed them. Cf. Fernández-Guerra in vol. II,
pp. 79-104 of the _Discursos_ of the Real Academia Española (Madrid,
1861); Ticknor, II, 282 ff: Fitzmaurice-Kelly, _History of Spanish
Literature_, 184 ff.
FRANCISCO DE BORJA, PRÍNCIPE DE ESQUILACHE. Esquilache was of the Borgia
family and partly Italian in origin. Most of his verse is natural,
simple and in a light vein. Occasionally he lapses into Gongorism. See
vol. II of the _Poetas líricos del siglo XVI_ in the _Biblioteca de
autores españoles_; and cf. Ticknor, III, 40 ff., where the
_Fuentecillas que reís_ is translated.
*Page 169.*—l. 26. *el aurora*: the older more general use of *el*
before feminine words beginning with _a_.
l. 28. An attraction of the verb by the predicate.
FRANCISCO DE RIOJA. A cleric, protégé of Olivares, and disciple of
Herrera, he has left us a few poems characterized by perfection of form
and a generally melancholy and resigned tone. Cf. his _Poesías_
published by Barrera for the _Sociedad de bibliófilos españoles_,
Madrid, 1867, and the _Adiciones_ of the same editor, Seville, 1872; see
also vol. I of the _Líricos del siglo XVI_.
*Page 171.*—l. 13. *asconde*, i.e., *esconde*.
l. 14. *Paro*: i.e., _Paros_, an island in the Ægean sea, famous for its
marble.
PEDRO SOTO DE ROJAS. A friend of Lope de Vega, and the author of lyrics
and eclogues in the Italian manner, published under the title of
_Desengaños de amor_, Madrid, 1623. Cf. the _Parnaso_ of Sedano, Madrid,
1768, etc., vol. IV; and see Ticknor, III, 56.
ESTEBAN MANUEL DE VILLEGAS. An opponent of Gongorism and well trained in
the humanities, Villegas shows a decided influence of the classics in
his erotic verse published under the title of _Eróticas ó Amatorias_
(1617). He has happily imitated Horace, Catullus and Anacreon. Cf. the
ed. of his poems, Madrid, 1774; Sedano, _Parnaso_, vol. IX; vol. II of
the _Líricos del siglo XVI_; and see Ticknor III, 36 ff.
*Page 177.*—l. 9. A good example of Sapphic verse in Spanish.
SALVADOR JACINTO POLO DE MEDINA. A satirist and imitator of Quevedo. Cf.
his _Obras_, Saragossa, 1670; and see vol. II of the _Líricos del siglo
XVI_, in the _Biblioteca de autores españoles_. According to Ticknor,
III, 38, _note_, the _Apolo y Dafne_ “is partly in ridicule of the
_culto_ style.”
*Page 178.*—l. 16. *con mil sales*, _with a thousand graces_.
*Page 179.*—l. 10. *¡Vive Chipre!* a disguised oath.
PEDRO CALDERÓN DE LA BARCA. The compeer of Lope de Vega in the history
of the Spanish drama, Calderón is certainly Lope’s equal, if not his
superior, in lyrism. Less inventive and less prolific than the earlier
poet, Calderón surpasses him in all that relates to perfection of form.
His lyrics have been collected in part in the volumes entitled
_Poesías_, Cadiz, 1845, and _Poesías inéditas_ (_Biblioteca universal_),
Madrid, 1881. Cf. Ticknor, II, 346 ff.; Günther, _Calderón und seine
Werke_, Freiburg, 1888; Menéndez y Pelayo, _Estudios_, II; R. C. French,
_Calderón, his life and genius_ (New York, 1856 and since).
*Page 181.*—l. 11. A selection from the drama _El mágico prodigioso_,
Jornada tercera, Escena V.
*Page 183.*—l. 13. This famous passage containing the counsel of the
alcalde to his son occurs in Jornada segunda, Escena XXII of the play
_El alcalde de Zalamea_. It must remind one of the advice of Polonius to
his son in _Hamlet_, Act I, Scene III.
*Page 184.*—l. 26. *entres*, *vuestro*. The combination is
ungrammatical, but the refrain is thus given by Ticknor, II, 353, _note_
(5). A correction to *entréis* seems permissible.
AGUSTÍN DE SALAZAR TORRES. Salazar’s lyrics, published posthumously
(1677) as _La cythara de Apolo_, evince in him a Gongoristic strain as
well as some imitation of the manner of Villamediana. Cf. vol. II of the
_Líricos del siglo XVI_ in the _Biblioteca de autores españoles_;
Ticknor, III, 27; Menéndez y Pelayo, _Poetas hispano-americanos_, I, p.
lxiv.
SOR JUANA INÉS DE LA CRUZ. A Mexican nun who has left us secular
poems—written doubtless before her profession—full of force and the
genuine fervor of love, and religious poems of a mystic and ascetic
tendency. She was a humanist by temperament and, as the _Redondillas_ in
defense of women show, a vigorous champion of her sex’s rights. Cf.
Menéndez y Pelayo, _Antología de poetas hispano-americanos_, vol. I
(Madrid, 1893: published by the Academy), pp. 5 ff., with an excellent
sketch of her life and work on pp. lxvi ff.; _Líricos del siglo XVI_,
vol. II: Ticknor, III, 51 _note_.
*Page 186.*—ll. 11-12. *Para ... Lucrecia*, _a Lais_—with allusion to
the celebrated courtesan of Corinth—_when courted, a Lucretia_—i.e., a
model of virtue—_when won_.