and published them under the names of six of the Muses: there is Clio, the historic, chiefly comprising sonnets on public events; Polyhymnia, the sententious; Melpomene, consisting principally of epitaphs; Erato, 'singing the achievements of love and beauty;' Terpsichore, the light, satirical, and gay—a large portion being in the gipsy language; and Thalia, the most extensive of all, which sings 'de omnibus rebus et quibusdam aliis.' The following translation of one of Quevedo's sonnets is from the pen of Mr Wiffen:

The Ruins of Rome.

'Pilgrim, thou look'st in Rome for Rome divine,
And even in Rome no Rome can find! her crowd
Of mural wonders is a corse, whose shroud
And fitting tomb is the lone Aventine.

She lies where reigned the kingly Palatine,
And time's worn medals more of ruin show
From her ten thousand fights than even the blow
Struck at the crown of her imperial line.
Tiber alone remains, whose rushing tide
Waters the town now sepulchred in stone,
And weeps its funeral with paternal tears:

Oh Rome! in thy wild beauty, power, and pride,
The durable is fled; and what alone

Is fugitive, abides the ravening years!'

The prose works of Quevedo will be noticed in their proper place.

VILLEGAS.

1596-1669.

Though poets were so numerous in this age that Cervantes represents them as raining in showers from the clouds, yet Spain had no Anacreon till Villegas appeared in 1596. That a poet, imbued at once with the spirit of Anacreon, Horace, and Catullus, should now arise, and gain extensive popularity, was a thing scarcely to be expected; for it seemed as if the resources of amatory poetry were completely exhausted. The works of Villegas, therefore, were received with delight, for the Spanish people, so restricted in the topics of their literature, were yet greedy of literary entertainment.

Estévan Manuel de Villegas was a native of Naxera, in Old Castile, where he was born in 1596. His life was by no means

an eventful one. He studied at Madrid and Salamanca, and so early as his fifteenth year made translations from Anacreon and Horace. He then began to write original Anacreontics, and in his twenty-third year collected and published his various pieces, dedicating them to Philip III. On the death of his father he returned to Naxera, to attend to his little estate, and cultivate his literary tastes. He married a beautiful lady of distinguished family, and having become the father of six children, he was anxious to obtain some office that would so increase his scanty income as to enable him to prosecute various literary schemes which he had in view. But he succeeded only in being appointed to a post of very slender emolument in his native town. Thus it would appear that his genius was checked by his poverty, and that his name did not obtain that celebrity that might have been its reward under happier circumstances.

The following is a translation by Mr Wiffen of a piece which in the original is considered a model of graceful poetry:-

'I have seen the nightingale
On a sprig of thyme bewail,
Seeing the dear nest which was
Hers alone, borne off, alas!
By a labourer. I heard,
For this outrage, the poor bird
Say a thousand mournful things
To the wind, which on its wings,
From her to the guardian sky,
Bore her melancholy cry,
Bore her tender tears. She spake
As if her fond heart would break;
One while in a sad sweet note,
Gurgled from her straining throat,
She enforced her piteous tale,
Mournful prayer, and plaintive wail;
One while with the shrill dispute
Quite outwearied, she was mute;
Then afresh for her dear brood
Her harmonious shrieks renewed.
Now she winged it round and round;
Now she skimmed along the ground;
Now, from bough to bough in haste,
The delighted robber chased;
And alighting in his path,

Seemed to say 'twixt grief and wrath,
"Give me back, fierce rustic rude!
Give me back my pretty brood!"
And I saw the rustic still
Answered, "That I never will!"

The following sapphic ode is rendered by the same elegant translator:

To the Zephyr.

'Sweet neighbour of the green, leaf-shaking grove,
Eternal guest of April, frolic child

Of a sad sire, life-breath of mother-love,
Favonius, Zephyr mild !

If thou hast learned like me to love-away!
Thou who hast borne the murmurs of my cry;
Hence-no demur-and to my Flora say--
Say that "I die."

Flora once knew what bitter tears I shed;
Flora once wept to see my sorrows flow;
Flora once loved me- -but I dread, I dread
Her anger now!

So may the gods, so may the calm blue sky,
For the fair time that thou in gentle mirth
Sport'st in the air, with love benign deny
Snows to the earth!

So never may the gray cloud's cumbrous sail,
When from on high the rosy daybreak springs,
Beat on thy shoulders, nor its evil hail

Wound thy fine wings!'

Among the best poets that followed Villegas we may mention Juan de Jauregui, who translated the 'Pharsalia' of Lucan; Francisco, prince of Borja and Esquilache, an ardent cultivator of poetry, who has left most voluminous works; and Bernardino, Count of Rebolledo, ambassador to Denmark, where he wrote the greater part of his poems. But poetry may be said to have expired with these writers. They were beginning to confound inspiration with reason, imagination with knowledge; and instead of genuine poetry, to compose treatises on history, geography, government, and war, in versified prose. The genius of Calderon, already mentioned, seemed to be one of the last brilliant flashes of the versatile genius of the Spaniard.

SPANISH PROSE DURING THE THIRD PERIOD.

1500-1665.

The good taste of the best Spanish authors led them to mark distinctly the boundary between poetry and prose; and this was never more rigorously insisted on than during this period. But there were serious hindrances to the advancement of dignified prose. The intercourse with Italy had made the Spaniards feel the want of elegance in their own colloquial language; and however far they carried some of their patriotic notions, many of them deemed their vernacular an unsuitable vehicle for serious compositions. Besides, there was little demand for books of this nature, the taste of the people having been vitiated by the exclusive perusal of that light literature which had taken the Spanish language as its peculiar inheritance. In the reign of Charles V., the passion for chivalrous romances had become almost a disease, for the art of printing had facilitated the circulation of the old ones, and modern imitations were not wanting.

To imitate the ancient classics was the only means by which prose literature could be cultivated with success; for the Italian authors, with few exceptions, presented that playful and often superficial kind of elegance which rendered them quite unfit to be models for those of Spain. Unfortunately, the ecclesiastical and political despotism of the age imposed heavy shackles on the mental powers of those who would have constructed a national prose style on the ancient models. Neither the didactic nor historical styles could be developed with freedom; and circumstances were, if possible, still more unfavourable for the rhetorical. Encompassed with such obstacles, the writers of Spanish prose could not be expected to produce works worthy of comparison with the classic examples they would fain have imitated; but their efforts to open the path of genuine eloquence in their national literature deserve nevertheless to be honourably recorded.

DIDACTIC AND RHETORICAL PROSE.

6

Juan Lopez de Palacios Rubios, whom Marino Siculo calls the prince of jurists, was a native of a village in Castile, and studied in one of the colleges of Salamanca about the year 1484. He obtained a gown in the chancery of Valladolid, and thence was promoted to the royal counsel of the Queen Joanna and her son Charles, having previously been nominated by Ferdinand the Catholic as one of the framers and editors of the laws called 'de Toro.' In noticing the merits of this lawyer as a writer, due prominence must be given to his Treatise on Martial Courage.'~ In this work he treats of the essence, origin, and effects of military valour, and of the various modifications of this virtue necessary to constitute a gallant and self-possessed cavalier in the different crises of war. All this is discussed according to the principles of natural and moral philosophy, and illustrated by a reference to the historic deeds of ancient heroes. It is addressed to his eldest son, for whose instruction it seems to have been written, doubtless with a view to prepare him for entering on a military career. The diction of the work is clear, fluent, and even elegant, considering the state of the Castilian language at the period in which it was written.

Fernan Perez de Oliva of Cordova is considered the father of

Spanish didactic prose. Early in the sixteenth century this learned man travelled through Italy and France, and finally settled at Salamanca, where he became professor of theology, and delivered lectures on the Aristotelian philosophy. He was afterwards appointed tutor to the young prince Philip, but died soon afterwards (1530), before completing his fortieth year. Oliva gave to the learned of his time the wholesome example of writing exclusively in the Castilian language. His great object was to prove that it could be accommodated to every subject, and that in good hands it was capable of displaying elegant composition. His most celebrated work is a 'Dialogue on the Dignity of Man,' after the manner of Cicero. It was the first specimen in Spanish literature of clear and connected discussion maintained in correct and dignified language.

Oliva had a successful pupil in his nephew, Ambrosio de Morales, who was born at Cordova in the year 1513, and early acquired a high literary reputation. Charles V. appointed him classical tutor to his natural son Don John of Austria, and he was afterwards installed by Philip II. in the post of historiographer or chronicler of Castile. From this period he appears to have devoted himself