LETTER XI
The third period, or golden age of Spanish poetry in the 16th century.
Madrid, 23d July, 1778.
I went last night to take leave of some acquaintance previous to my departure for St. Ildefonso, and spent the evening in a most agreeable party, at one of those private assemblies, that go by the name of
Tertulias
but from whence they have derived this appellation I cannot inform you. —In many families these little parties are held every evening, and consist of a number of select friends, who enliven this friendly society. As soon as the company begins to assemble, they divide into different apartments; refreshments are immediately distributed, consisting of sherbets, sweetmeats, and chocolate: a cheerful and lively conversation is supported on a variety of pleasing subjects, in which the prelate, the soldier, and the civilian, come in for a share, and the ladies contribute their part. In another apartment a more grave set are amused with cards, while a few gallant knights, with the crimson insignia of chivalry on their breasts, divide themselves amongst the fair listeners, and the amorous glance is enlivened by sparkling eyes and every expression of feature: —while one echoes the soft murmurs of love, a delicate finger sounds the guitarre, and adds to its harmony with a song. —Each party is happy, no tiresome ceremony interrupts their felicity, the very idea of jealousy is struck out of the rubric: wit and good humour are the principal pursuits, added to a cheerful mind, unbent with every social at tribute: —no plodding about politics or the debts of the nation. —Happy moments thus glide away imperceptibly, till the usual hour comes, and then everyone retires in silence, pleased and contented! —Amongst a variety of entertaining subjects that are occasionally discussed in this entertaining junto, they happened last night to speak of the golden
age
of poetry in Spain, which was agreed upon, to have taken place in the
sixteenth
century, with the
re-establishment
of letters in that kingdom, when a new field was
opened
to the muses, who, banished from the
East,
listened to the few Spaniards who courted them, and accepted of their addresses; at the time that a true taste was reviving in
Italy,
under the
influence
of Sannazar,
Bembo,
and Ariosto, and the muses
recovering
from that drooping state they had fallen into at the death of
Petrarch.
The first
promoters
of this brilliant
revolution
in Spain, were Juan Boscan,
Garcilaso
de la Vega, the great Don Diego de
Mendoza,
Gutierre de Cetinia, and Don Lewis de
Haro,
who were followed by Francisco Saa de
Miranda
Pedro de Padilla, Gregorio Hernandez de Velasco and others; who, besides the Italian rhyme, adorned their own language with the further embellishments required by the muses, such as lively invention, graceful style,
purity
of diction, and dignity of sentiment, equal to elevated subjects: to shew, however, the foibles of the
human
mind, with the baneful effect of envy, when
genius
makes a new effort; a set of men was not wanting, who looked with a
jealous
eye on the versification of the Italians; and such is the effect of prejudice, that it even worked upon the most ingenuous minds. Boscan acknowledges, that he attempted to introduce the new metre, at the persuasion of Navagero, the Venetian ambassador at the court of Charles the 5th, and he happily succeeded, having composed various
sonnets
and pastorals, in the Italian metre, which met with great acceptation, notwithstanding the other party endeavoured to lessen their merit, by calling such poets by the name of
Petrarquists.
Boscan
translated
the fable of Leander and Hero from the Greek of Museus and a tragedy of Euripides, which served to polish the style of his contemporary and
friend
Garcilaso de la Vega. Boscan further improved his mind by travel in Germany and Italy, in the service of the emperor Charles, reaping the same advantages as
Chaucer
had done before him with us, and may be truly said to be the
Petrarch
of Spain.
The great Don Diego de
Mendoza
merits a more particular investigation from his exalted character as a poet, a
soldier,
and a
statesman.
This illustrious personage was of the
noble
house of Mendoza, being son of Don Ignacio Lopez de Mendoza, second count of Tendilla, and marquis of Mondejar. Our poet was born in Granada, about the year 1500, and educated in the
university
of Salamanca, where he applied himself closely to the Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic languages. Besides the advantages of his high birth, he enjoyed those of court favour, and was honoured with the most eminent dignities; for he was a
Commandeur
of the
order
of Alcantara, counsellor of state to the emperor Charles, and his ambassador at Venice and at Rome, as well as at the famous Council of Trent, where he made a conspicuous figure. His long residence in Italy, added to his natural genius, gave him every opportunity of improvement, insomuch that he was reckoned one of the politest scholars, and most accomplished gentlemen of his time. He is said to have had a most forbidding aspect, added to a peculiar severity of temper, which was of great prejudice to him when he was governor of Sienna; he seems to have conveyed it to his verse, which is in general harsh, for he faintly
imitated
the manner of Boscan, and still retained the languid expression of old times, which he was
not
able to conquer, notwithstanding his frequent communication with the most celebrated poets of Italy. Whilst a student at the university of Salamanca, he writ that little piece called the life
of
Lazarillo de Tormes,
which was soon after
translated
into Italian, and also into English: the great author little thought at that time, that his performance would ever serve to grace the stalls of Moorfields. —But this en passant, for he makes a considerable figure as an
historian
in his
Civil
wars
of Granada,
wherein he also speaks as a contemporary, as his nephew the marquis of Mondejar, was the general, under whose command all those great actions were performed. —It is difficult to bestow praises equal to the
elegance
of this classical performance, in which the beauty of
style
is so great, and the sentiment everywhere so
nobly
supported, that he
rivals
Sallust
and Tacitus; while as a soldier he has the correctness and temper of Cæsar, and may be said to unite in the highest degree the character of a fine gentleman, and an experienced commander. —Many pieces of his, written with much freedom, still remain in manuscript in private hands, and in the grand duke’s library at Florence. His other poems were printed, with the following title,
Obras del insigne Cavallero Don Diego de Mendoza en Madrid,
1610. —His fine library he bequeathed to Philip the 2d, and it serves as one of the principal ornaments of the escurial.
1
Another valiant
soldier
now occurs, who
distinguished
himself as a poet, and joined with Don Diego de Mendoza in introducing the metre of Petrarch, and polishing the language of his own country. This was
Garcilaso
de la Vega, born at Toledo in 1503,
knight
of the order of Alcantara, and son of Garcilaso de la Vega, ambassador from the catholic king at the court of Rome, son of Hernan Perez de Guzman, a celebrated poet. Garcilaso distinguished himself early as a military man in the armies of Charles the fifth, particularly at the siege of Tunis, where he was wounded in the face and in the arm. He at tended the emperor in Piedmont, having eleven companies of infantry under his command, and was mortally wounded at the storming of a tower near Frejus, being only thirty-three years old, at which the emperor was so irritated, that all the peasants who defended it, were put to the sword. Thus fell, in the prime of life, a gallant soldier and an accomplished genius, who had greatly improved the poetry of Spain by polishing its numbers, and introducing the melody and harmony of the Italian versification, with which he had been early acquainted, as well as with the principal Italian poets of his time, so that he has justly been stiled
The
Prince
of Spanish poets,
having with his
friend
Boscan brought the Spanish poetry to its
highest
perfection. —Still the national pride of Don Christoval de
Castillejo,
endeavoured to oppose the progress of harmony and poetical numbers, and though he was at Vienna as secretary to prince Ferdinand, afterwards emperor; he still inveighed
against
his countrymen, particularly in a satyrical piece “against those who quitted the Spanish metre to adopt the Italian”: and in a poem entitled
Petrarquistas,
he introduces Juan de Mena, George Manrique, Garci Sanchez, Cartagena, and Torres Naharro, as followers of the
Spanish
metre, in opposition to Boscan, Garcilaso, Don Luis de Haro, and Don Diego Mendoza,
accusing
this last of having made use of verse with
leaden
feet.
You will find nevertheless in the poets of this age, a
softness
and fluency unknown to their predecessors; Hernandez distinguished himself by his
translation
of the Æneis of Virgil, and his first and fourth eclogue, as also the poem of Sannazzar
de partu virginis.
Juan de Guzman likewise translated the Georgics of Virgil with the greatest success, which, were printed at Salamanca in 1586.
Lope de
Rueda,
a celebrated actor, now began to give some form to the
Spanish
stage, being also a principal performer of his own compositions, which were published after his death, by Juan Timoneda; he was followed by Bartholome de
Torre
Naharro, another writer for the
stage,
whose comedies and other poems were published by himself, under the whimsical name of Propaladia: Juan de la
Cueva
was the next in succession to Naharro, who adorned the dramatic muse, as Don Alonso de
Ercilla
did the
epic.
Fernando de
Herrera,
by a singular caprice, acquired the surname of Divine from the fire and energy of his verse,
though
he was surpassed in facility of rhyme by Don Estevan Manuel de
Villegas,
who
admirably
enriched his own language with all the graces of the Latin sapphics, Hexameters and Pentameters, uniting the wit of
Horace,
the graces of
Anacreon,
the freedom and elegance of Tibullus, with the politeness of Propertius, and the natural turn of Theocritus. His poems were published under the title of
Eroticas.
He also
translated
Boetius, in a manner equal to his great reputation.
The persecuted
Father
Lewis de
Leon
may justly be stiled one of the principal
favourites
of the muses in this polite age,
imitating
Pindar, Horace, Virgil and Tibullus, as well as
Petrarch
and Bembo. —His elegant versions of the sacred writings drew on him an unjust and severe persecution from his rivals, and after long and cruel sufferings in the dark prisons of the inquisition, he came out with honour and triumph, to the confusion and disgrace of his enemies! Next to him we must place the two brothers of the name of
Argensola,
who equally claim the title of the
Horace
of Spain, and have not since been equalled.
We must also write with golden letters in the temple of fame, a celebrated
statesman,
Gonzalo
Perez,
secretary of state to Philip the second, and
father
to the unfortunate Antonio Perez, secretary to Philip, as his father had been, and whose melancholy story is well known: Having had the good fortune to escape from Philip, he finished his days in obscurity, in France, under the protection of Henry the 4th. With the permission of queen Elizabeth, he went, for a little time, to England, and was in correspondence with Essex and other persons of that time. —But to return to his father Gonzalo, he distinguished himself as a poet by an elegant
translation
of the Odyssey of Homer, in blank verse, in which attempt he stood unrivalled till the
British
muse jealous of a foreign bard, disputed with him the honour of excelling in so noble a career.—As for Christoval de
Mesa,
he faintly closes the expiring era, and though a scholar of Tasso, with whom he lived five years in Rome; he remained far
behind
him, and unequal to
epic
poetry: some of his performances are tolerable, such as the fable of Narcissus, from Ovid, his
imitation
of the
Beatus Ille
of Horace, a poetical compendium of the art of poetry, and some pastorals. —After this last effort, we must now view the Spanish muse like a
stately
tree, arrived at its ultimate period of improvement, and gently bending its head to the all-powerful influence of time, gradually
declining
with the progeny of Philip the 2d, who, after a long reign, expired in the Escurial, overwhelmed with disease, in the most excruciating pains, and devoured by vermin. The muses wept, foreseeing the decline of the Philips, and closed the brightness of their days with the century! One of the last writers who supported this tottering fabric, was the Count de
Rebolledo,
a gentleman of distinguished talents, and a
soldier
of great intrepidity. He served first in the marine department, under Don Pedro de Leyva, and having the command of a galley, gave proofs of the utmost bravery against the Turks: he afterwards served in Flanders with equal reputation as a colonel of horse, and was employed as a minister to the imperial court on business of great moment; and Ferdinand the 2d, being at the diet of Ratisbonne, was so pleased with his conduct and prudence, though at that time only thirty-fix years of age, that he conferred on him the dignity of a Count of the sacred Roman Empire. —He was afterwards
minister
plenipotentiary in Denmark, after which he returned to Madrid and was of the council of war, and died in his eightieth year, universally regretted. —His works were printed at Copenhagen and Antwerp; many of his poems are dedicated to Christina Queen of Sweden; his
Selva Danica
to Sophia Amelia Queen of Denmark, and his
Selva Militar y Politica
to
his own sovereign, Philip the 4th, from whom there are sixty-eight original letters extant, written to him from 1648 to 61, many of the king’s own hand, while in Denmark; seven from the cardinal Infant Don Ferdinand, and other illustrious personages.
Many poets however supported the spirit of the golden age, such as Vicente Espinel, Don Luis de
Ulloa,
Pedro de Espinosa, Don Francisco Quevedo, Don
Juan
de Jauregui, Solis the historian and others, who like railing leaves announced the long winter that was to follow. The name of
Quevedo
is well known to you, and his visions which have been
translated
into English; his genius was such that neither the
persecutions
he suffered from his enemies, or other mortifications, could damp his bold masculine spirit, or the keenness of his satire; besides his merit as a poet he was well versed in the oriental languages and of great,
erudition.
—His poems appeared under the feigned name of the Bachelor
Francisco
de la Torre. When the Duke of Osuna was viceroy of Naples, he was employed in several commissions of consequence amongst the Italian states, and had the address to go to Venice, on a particular object, disguised as a mendicant. The viceroy sent him to court, acknowledging his great services, for which he was made a
knight
of St. James. —When the duke's interest and favour declined, he came in for his share of disgrace, and was three years in confinement, afflicted with illness, but nothing appearing against him, he was set at liberty. Disgusted with the fickleness of court favour, and attendance on the great, he refused several employments that were offered him, as well in the ministry, as the embassy to Genoa; and retired to his own feat, where he gave himself up entirely to literary pursuits. At the age of
fifty-four,
he entered into the state of matrimony, with Dona Esperanza de Aragon, a lady of rank, whom he soon had the misfortune to lose, finding no other alleviation than such as arose from his philosophical disposition. But the envenomed shafts of envy still reached him in his solitude; on a
false
accusation of being author of an in famous libel, he was arrested in the night, put in close confinement, and his estate sequestered. In this situation he laboured under various diseases with acute pain of body and mind; his patrimony seized, and himself supported by charity! under this distress he wrote that elegant and pathetic letter to the prime minister Olivarez, which procured him his enlargement: the case was enquired into, and the calumny, as well as its author, discovered. He once more returned to court to recover his estate, which had suffered various depredations, but this ungrateful theatre he soon abandoned, and retired to his country seat, overwhelmed with illness, the consequence of his cruel imprisonment, all which be bore with manly fortitude, and finished his days with exemplary and Christian resignation in the
65th
year of his age, in 1645. His person was engaging, his complexion fair, and great expression in his countenance; but from continual study, his eyes were so weakened, that he constantly wore spectacles. —Such was Quevedo, one of the
greatest
scholars and
eminent
poets of his time, whose
youth
was spent in the service of his country in Italy, where he distinguished himself with the utmost sagacity and prudence. —To give you an idea of his extensive knowledge and profound erudition, I own myself at a loss, much less to speak of his numerous though excellent writings. —His
moral
discourses prove his found doctrine and religious sentiments, while his literary pieces display his infinite judgment and refined
taste.
—His great knowledge of Hebrew is apparent from the report of the historian
Mariana
to the king, requesting that Quevedo might revise the new edition of the bible of
Arias
Montanus. His
translations
of Epictetus and Phocylides, with his
imitations
of Anacreon and other Greek authors, shew how well he was versed in that language: That he was a Latin
scholar,
his constant correspondence, from the age of
twenty,
with Lipsius, Chifflet, and Scioppius, will sufficeently illustrate. —As a poet he excelled both in the
serious
and
burlesque
style, and was singularly happy in that particular turn we have since admired in
Butler
and Swift. His library, which consisted of about five thousand volumes, was reduced, at his death, to about two thousand, and is preserved in the convent of St. Martin, at Madrid. —Were I to enlarge further, respecting this great man, I should easily fill a moderate volume. —But it is time to proceed, before we behold the setting sun, and a mist arise over the poetical horizon, which various incidents have obscured and greatly deprived of its original lustre.
The
Diana Enamorada
of Gil
Polo,
an elegant poet in the
sixteenth
century, was reprinted in London, in 1739, under the inspection of Pedro de Pineda. —
Jauregui
translated
Lucan, but not with that success as he did the Aminta of Tasso. I close the golden
age
with the
immortal
Miguel de
Cervantes;
—like another
Homer,
many cities contended for his birth, and his transcendent merit you are well acquainted with. In his poem entitled A
Voyage to Parnassus,
he has delineated the characters of the poets of his time. —he equally shines as a
dramatic
writer, but everything of his is totally eclipsed by his
incomparable
romance
of
Don Quixote,
which, alone crowns his temples with never fading laurels.
Thus ended the golden
age
of the Spanish muse, whose period of glory was short, though the attempt to secure its duration seemed to promise a more lasting reign, if a close
imitation
of the ancients, and the
precepts
of those great
masters,
Aristotle
and
Horace, could have secured to them the prize; or some invisible cause had not with hasty strides brought on its
decline:
but before I speak of this last period, I transmit you an ode of Horace in Spanish, Italian, and English, from whence you may form a
comparative
judgment of the energy and powers of each language. I have subjoined a few specimens of hexameters, sapphics, adonics, and epigrams, which will give you some idea of the harmony of
Spanish
numbers in its most improved state.
Adieu!
ODE XXIII.
Ad Fuscum Aristium
Integer vitæ scelerisque purus
Non eget mauri
Jaculis,
neque arcu
Nec venenatis gravida fagittis,
Fusce pharetra.
Sive per syrtes iter æftuosas, [5]
Sive facturus per inhospitalem
Caucasum, vel quæ loca fabulosus
Lambit Hydaspes.
Namque me sylva lupus in Sabina,
Dum meam canto Lalagen, et Altra [10]
Terminum curis vagor expeditus,
Fugit inermem.
Quale portentum neque militaris
Daunia in latis alit esculetis:
Nee Jubæ tellus generat, leonum, [15]
Arida nutrix.
Pone me pigris ubi nulla campis
Arbor æstiva recreatur aura;
Quod latus mundi nebulæ, malusquc
Jupiter urget. [20]
Pone sub curru nimium propinqui
Solis, in terra domibus negata:
Dulce ridentem Lalagen amabo,
Dulce loquentem.
IN SPANISH.
The same by Don Antonio de Solis, author of the history of the conquest of Mexico.
No ha menester defenderse
Con dardos arrojadizos
Quien
vive con entereza,
Y camina sin delito.
Sóbrale el arco y la aljaba, [5]
Con el embrión maligno
De venenas saetas
Que añaden malicia al tiro.
O camine por las sirias
Abrasadas del estío, [10]
O el Caucaso inhabitable
Penetre con pie sencillo.
O bien pise los horrores
De los formidables riscos,
Que undoso lame el Hydaspes [15]
Antes de befar el Indo.
Que entre los mayores riesgos
Camina bien defendido
El que va con la innocencia
Que es virtud sin enemiga. [20]
N. B.
The last strophe of Horace seems to have been emitted by the Spanish poet.
IN ITALIAN.
By Dr. Maffei, of Leghorn, in his translation of Horace, dedicated to Sir John Dick, Bart. his Majesty's Consul at Leghorn, and knight of St. Anne of Russia.
Chi e giusto, e puro
Di
diletti
ha il petto,
Fusco non cerca,
Mauri dardi, o l'arco
Ne la faretra [5]
Piena di saette
Avvelenate:
O muova i palli
Per le sirti ardenti,
O sìa che debba [10]
Valicare il monte
Caucaso, o i luogi
Dove favuloso
Scorre l'Idaspe.
Poiche la mia [15]
Lalage cantando
Mentre minoltro
Nel Sabino bosco,
Scevro di cure
Disarmato, e solo, [20]
Me fuge un lupo,
Qual la guerricra
Daunia militare
Mostro non nutre
Nelle vaste selve, [25]
Ne la Numidia
Forma di leoni
Arida madre
Nei pigri campi.
Dove pianta estiva [30]
Giammai leggiero
Zeffiro recrea
Pommi, cui nebbia,
Ed il procelloso
Giove molesta: [35]
O sotto il carro
Pommi del vicino
Sole, nei luooghi
Vedovi di tetti,
Dolce ridente [40]
Lalage amero
Dolce parlante.
IN ENGLISH
By Wentworth Dillon Earl of Roscommon.
Virtue, dear friend! needs no defence,
The
surest
guard is innocence:
None knew 'till guilt treated sea
What darts or poisoned arrows were.
Integrity undaunted goes [5]
Through Lybian sands or Scythian snows,
Or where Hydaspes' wealthy side
Pays tribute to the Persian pride.
For as by am'rous thoughts betray'd
Careless in Sabin woods I stray'd, [10]
A grisly foaming wolf unfed,
Met me unarm'd, yet trembling fled.
No beast of more portentous size,
In the Hercinian forest lies,
None fiercer in Numidia bred, [15]
With Carthage were in triumph led.
Set me in the remotest place,
That Neptune's frozen arms embrace
Where angry Jove did never spare
One breath of kind and temp'rate air. [20]
Set me where on some pathless plain
The swarthy Africans complain,
To fee the chariot of the sun
So near their scorching country run.
The burning zone, the frozen isles [25]
Shall hear me sing of Celia's smiles:
All cold, but in her breast I will despise;
And dare all heat! but that in Celia's eyes.
SPECIMEN OF HEXAMETERS,
By Don Estevan Manuel de
Villegas.
ÉGLOGA.
Licidas Coridon, y Goridon el amante de
Filis,
Pastor el uno de cabras, el otro de blancas ovejas,
Ambos a dos tiernos, mozos ambos, arcades ambos,
Viendo que los rayos del sol fatigaban al orbe,
Y que vibrando fuego feroz la canícula ladra, [5]
Al puro cristal, que cría la fuente sonora,
Llevados del son alegre de su blando susurro,
Las plantas veloces mueven, los pasos animan,
Y al tronco de un verde enebro se sientan amigos.
SAPPHICS.
By the same hand.
Dulce vecino de la verde selva,
Huésped
eterno
del abril florido,
Vital aliento de la madre Venus,
Zephiro blando.
Si de mis ansias el amor supiste; [5]
Tú, que las quejas de mi voz llevaste,
Oye: no temas, y a mi ninfa dile,
Dile, que muero
Filis un tiempo mi dolor sabia,
Filis un tiempo mi dolor lloraba, [10]
Quisome un tiempo; mas agora temo,
Temo sus iras
Asi los dioses con amor paterno,
Asi los cielos con amor benigno,
Nieguen al tiempo, que feliz volares, [15]
Nieve a la tierra.
Jamás el peso de la nube parda,
Quando amanece la elevada cumbre;
Torque tus hombros, ni fu mal granizo.
Hiera tus alas. [20]
ADONICS
By Gerónimo
Bermudez,
O! Corazones
Mas que de tigres!
O!
manos crudas
Mas que de fieras,
Como pudistes [5]
Tan innocente,
Tan apurada
Sangre verter!
Ay! que su grito,
O Lusitania, [10]
Patria mía,
Ay que su grito
Desde la tierra
Rompe los cielos,
Rompe las nubes, [15]
Rompe los ayres,
Trae las llamas
Del zelo vivo,
Trae los rayos y
Del vivo fuego [20]
Que purifica
Toda la tierra
Contaminada
De la crueza
Que cometiste! [25]
Trae la vara,
Trae el azote,
Trae la peste,
Trae la furia
Que te castiga [30]
Sin piedad.
Etc.
ANACREONTIC ODE,
By Don Estevan Manuel de Villegas.
Yo vi sobre un tomillo
Quexarse un
paxarillo
Viendo su nido amado,
De quien era caudillo,
De un labrador robado. [5]
Vile tan congojado
Por tal atrevimiento,
Dar mil quexas al viento;
Para que al cielo santo
Lleve su tierno llanto, [10]
Lleve su triste acento.
Ya con triste harmonía,
Es forzando el intento,
Mil quexas repetía:
Ya cansado callaba: [15]
Y al nuevo sentimiento
Ya sonoro volvía.
Ya circular volaba:
Ya rastrero corría:
Ya, pues, de rama en rama [20]
Al rustico seguía;
Y saltando en la grama,
Parece que decía:
Dame, rustico fiero,
Mi dulce compañía [25]
Y que le respondía
El rustico:
no quiero.
PINDARIC ODE,
By Father Lewis de
Leon.
El agua es bien precioso,
Y
entre
el rico tesoro,
Como el ardiente fuego en noche escura
Ansí relumbra el oro.
Mas, alma si es sabroso [5]
Cantar de las contiendas la ventura,
Ansí como en la altura
No hay rayo mas luciente,
Que el sol, que rey del día
Por todo el yermo cielo se demuestra; [10]
Ansi es mas excelente
La olímpica porfia
De todas las que canta la voz nuestra:
Materia abundante,
Donde todo elegante [15]
Ingenio alza la voz, ora cantando
De Rea, y de Saturno el engendrado,
Y juntamente entrando
Al techo de Hieron alto preciado.
CANCIÓN.
By
Garcilaso
de la Vega, dedicated to Violante Sanseverino, daughter to the Duke de Soma, in Naples.
Si de mi baja lira
Tanto pudiese
el
son, que un momento
Aplicase la ira
Del animoso viento,
Y la furia del mar, y el movimiento; [5]
Y en asperas montañas,
Con el suave canto enterneciese
Las fieras animales,
Los arboles moviese,
Y al son confusamente los truxese [10]
No pienses que cantando
Seria de mi, hermosa flor de gnido,
El fiero Marte ayrado,
A muerte convertido.
De polvo, y sangre, y de sudor tenido: [15]
Ni aquellos capitanes,
En la sublime rueda colocados,
Por quien los alemanes
El fiero cuello atados,
Y los franceses van domesticados. [20]
EPIGRAM.
By Baltazar del
Alcazar.
Magdalena me picó
Con un alfiler un
dedo;
Dijela: picado quedo,
Pero ya lo estaba yo.
Rióse, y con su cordura [5]
Acudió al remedio presto
Chupóme el dedo, y con esto
Sané de la picadura.
EPIGRAM.
By Lope de
Vega
on Charles Prince of Wales, when he went to Madrid to court the Infanta of Spain.
Carlos Stuardo soy
Que siendo
Amor,
mi
guia
Al cielo de España voy
Por ver mi estrella Maria!
1. The
compiler
of the new Spanish Parnassus, speaking of Don Diego Mendoza, and of his having been ambassador in England, acknowledges he cannot discover at what time; which makes me think he mistook him for his brother, Don Bernardino de Mendoza, who was ambassador in England in queen Elizabeth's time, and on her being informed that he had been concerned in all the cabals that Throcmorton and others had contrived against her person and state, she caused him to be sharply reprimanded by the council, who commanded him to depart the realm, which he not doing, they sent him on board captain Hawkins's vessel, who landed him at Calais, and Sir William Wade was sent to complain of Mendoza, and justify the necessity of the step; but Philip was so offended, he would not fee him, and referred him to his council, on which Sir William quitted Spain, saying his orders were to address himself to the king, and since he would not admit him, he had then nothing more to do in the kingdom. —
Winquefort.