other were heard at night in the streets and public squares; that the child might continually lisp it; the secluded maiden find in it her best solace; and the industrious tradesman make it the lightener of his toil! But the Christian profession is now sunk to such shameless and reckless degradation, that we set our sins to music, and, not content with indulging them in secret, we sing them forth joyfully to all who will listen.' The classical translations of Leon form an epoch in this department. They cannot be admired by the connoisseur who desires a faithful resemblance of the original; but such versions would scarcely have commanded readers in Spain at this period. The author has himself explained the principles by which he was guided in adorning the sphere of the romance with transplants from ancient Greece and Rome. He endeavoured, he says, to make the ancient poets speak as they would have expressed themselves had they been born in his own age and country, and had they written in Castilian. However bold the attempt, yet if the validity of the principle be admitted, Leon will be found to have fulfilled all that the most rigid critic could desire. Public opinion soon justified the course he had adopted: his translations obtained the rank in Spanish literature to which they were entitled; and they have served as models for all succeeding versions of Greek and Latin poetry in the Castilian language. With this amiable enthusiast terminates the series of eminent authors who, during the first half of the sixteenth century, composed after the model of the great poets of Italy or the ancient classics. A few others, though of minor reputation, deserve to be mentioned. Fernando de Acuña made an elegant translation of some portions of Ovid, and is remarkable for the grace and feeling which he has displayed in several elegies, sonnets, and canciones. Gutiere de Cetina was the first happy imitator of Anacreon in the Spanish language. Pedro de Padilla, a knight of the spiritual order of St Iago, was the rival of Garcilaso in pastoral poetry; and Gaspar Gil Polo continued the pastoral romance of Montemayor, under the name of 'Diana Enamorada,' with so much talent, that the supplement has been considered superior to the work itself, at least in the brilliancy and polish of the versification:— 'Despues que mal me quisistes.' 'Since you have said you loved me not, If you could veil your radiant brow, I should not live while dying now, Or, living, not thy anger move: And grief and care their wounds renew; Buried in your forgetfulness, And mouldering under death's dark pall, Hated by thee, the world, and all— But your disdain shall meet my view, OTHER KINDS OF POETRY DURING THE FIRST HALF OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. CASTILLEJO. Flourished about 1540. Although this was the period when Ariosto had attained his meridian glory, and Italy was inundated with chivalrous epics in imitation of Orlando Furioso, Spain seems to have failed in every effort in this direction. The free mixture of the comic with the serious, which is the very soul of the Italian Epopee, was at this era by no means accordant with Spanish taste. To descend from the earnest gravity of the national historic romances to the careless levity with which the Italian writers treated the venerable heroes of chivalry, was a transition as yet utterly repugnant to Spanish patriotism. Some attempts, indeed, were made at the serious epic; but unfortunately the splendour of recent events was so dazzling, that no Spanish Homer could think of any other Achilles than Charles V., or deemed any achievements worthy of epic glory save those of their own nation under his banner; so that the 'Carlos Famoso,' the 'Carlos Vitorioso,' and a host of other caroliads, arose and speedily sank into deserved oblivion. On the other hand, the rapid success of the imitators of the * Diana Enamorada, p. 220. Bowring, p. 271. ancient classic and modern Italian schools did not wholly deprive the old romance poetry either of its literary rank or its place in public estimation. Among those who defended it at all hazards, the most eminent was Cristoval de Castillejo, a man of considerable talent, and determined to be nothing but an old Castilian in poetic taste as in everything else. He ridiculed the new party with more wit than judgment; represented all the amatory lays of Italy as mere raillery; and contended that the loose rhythm of the redondilla was the only one suited to the genius of the Spanish language. Castillejo had travelled to Vienna with Charles V., and after the death of the emperor, remained in that city as secretary of state to Ferdinand I., on account of the relations still subsisting between the courts of Madrid and Vienna. Here most of his poems were written; and they abound with allusions to the gay life which he enjoyed at the imperial court. At an advanced age, wearied of gaiety and gallantry, he returned to Spain, assumed the order of the Cistercian monks, and died in a convent in the year 1596. The verses of Castillejo display considerable ease and gracefulness, together with no small share of humour. Indeed the strong inclination to levity which he could scarcely resist, even when he wished to be serious, is a distinguishing feature in all the poetic essays of this ingenious author, and has sometimes imparted to them more of a French than of a Spanish character. The following is a fair specimen of his style: 'How dreary and lone With neither fun nor business there. Without their smile, Life would be tasteless, vain, and vile ; A chaos of perplexity, A body without a soul 'twould be; A roving spirit, borne Upon the winds forlorn; A tree without either flowers or fruit, A house without a base. What would we do?-where should we go? But for woman to lead us? How could we love if woman were not? Love-the only gift worth giving? Who would take charge of your house, say who? Kitchen, and dairy, and money-chest? Who but the women who guard them best; Guard, and adorn them too? Who, like them, has a constant smile, Full of peace, of meekness full, When life's edge is blunt and dull, And if a beam of glory yet Over the gloomy earth appears, Oh, 'tis theirs!-oh, 'tis theirs! They are the guard, the soul, the seal, Of human hope and human weal: They, they, none but they! Woman, sweet woman-let none say nay! ** DRAMATIC POETRY PREVIOUS TO THE TIME OF CERVANTES. Amidst the throng of diversified talent which distinguished the reign of Charles V., and during the conflict between the new and the old modes of poetic composition, the Spanish drama began to flourish. It was nearly the same period that gave birth to the less happy Italian, which had to endure the struggle between the classic style and the popular burlesque. At the commencement of the sixteenth century, the pastoral dialogues of Juan de la Encina were still the only dramatic compositions in the Spanish language to which any degree of literary respect was attached, and they were, by particular favour, allowed to be represented at court. But the nation at large knew nothing of dramatic entertainments, if we except those mysteries, spiritualities, and burlesque representations of religious ceremonies, which were common throughout Europe during the middle ages. * Obras. Antwerp, 1598. P. 166. Now, however, three or four different parties began to cultivate this species of composition; and they did so on principles totally different from each other, yet apparently without maintaining any direct warfare, like the new and old schools of lyric poetry. The first party, called the Erudite, were men of taste and learning, but destitute both of imagination and of a correct apprehension of the true art of dramatic poetry. These endeavoured to form the modern drama on the ancient; and, not possessing talent enough to imitate the classic models, they were content to translate them into Spanish prose. But it was impossible that such productions should become popular, and we cannot learn that any of them were ever acted. The next party were the dramatic moralists, who, having the already - mentioned tragi-comedy of 'Celestina' for a precedent, composed a host of similar 'Mirrors of Sin.' Like their prototype, they were read and admired in their day; but their extreme length, if nothing else, precluded them from actual representation. Equally removed from both these schools was the path chosen by Bartolomé Torres Naharro, an ecclesiastic of extraordinary talent, who flourished early in the sixteenth century. He wrote his eight comedies in redondillas, in the romance style, and endeavoured to establish the dramatic interest solely on an ingenious combination of intrigues, without much regard either to the development of character or the moral tendency of the story. This writer seems to have been the real inventor of Spanish comedy, both as to its spirit and its form as divided into three acts; and so completely national did this style become, that no other was afterwards tolerated. The dramatic genius of Spain advanced in the path opened by Naharro, till it attained the point at which Calderon left it towards the close of the following century. It is almost certain, however, that even these plays never came into actual representation. They appear to have been still too much in advance of the popular taste, and to have required a theatrical apparatus quite unknown in Spain at this period. It needed a ruder effort to open the way for their being appreciated; and accordingly they were entirely superseded by the dramas of Lopez de Rueda, which, for a short interval, enjoyed the ascendancy. This Rueda was a native of Seville, a gold-beater by trade, and had received no literary education. But he was a man of powerful dramatic genius; and putting himself at the head of a little company of players, of which he himself was the ablest, he composed pastoral dialogues and comedies, not in the character of an author, but of an actor. His object was simply to amuse the |