[Illustration: _Louis Parez ddin. Rob^t. Cooper Sculp_
_Garcilasso de la Vega._
Nat. 1503. Ob. 1536.
_Published March 1^{st}. 1823. by Mess^{rs}. Hurst & Robinson._]
Translated into English Verse;
* * * * *
"Sometimes he turned to gaze upon his book,
Boscán or GARCILASSO; by the wind
Even as the page is rustled whilst we look,
So by the poesy of his own mind
Over the mystic leaf his soul was shook."
LORD BYRON.
* * * * *
1823.
TO
This Translation,
Inscribed
Till within the last few years but little attention appears to have been
paid in England to Castilian verse. Our earliest poets of eminence,
Chaucer and Lord Surrey, struck at once into the rich field of Italian
song, and by their imitations of Petrarch and Boccaccio, most probably
set the fashion to their successors, of the exclusive study which they
gave to the same models, to the neglect of the cotemporary writers of
other nations, to those at least of Spain. Nor is this partiality to the
one and neglect of the other to be at all wondered at; for neither could
they have gone to more suitable sources than the Tuscans for the harmony
and grace which the language in its first aspirations after refinement
wanted, nor did the Spanish poetry of that period offer more to
recompense the researches of the student than dry legends, historical
ballads, or rude imitations of the Vision of Dante. But it is a little
singular that this inattention should have continued when the influence
of the Emperor Charles the Fifth became great in the courts of Europe,
and the Spanish language, chastised into purity and elegance by Boscán,
Garcilasso, and their immediate successors, obtained a currency amongst
the nations correspondent with the extent of his conquests. The hostile
attitude in which England stood to Spain under Elizabeth, may be
regarded as perhaps the principal cause why we meet in the constellation
of writers that gave lustre to her reign, with so few traces of their
acquaintance with the literature of that country; whilst the strong
jealousy of the nation to Spanish influence, catholicism, and jesuitical
intrigue, no less than the purely controversial spirit of the times,
had, I doubt not, their full effect under the Stuarts, in deterring the
scholars of that period from any close communion with her poets.
Meanwhile the corruption of style which had so baneful an effect on her
literature, was silently going forward under Gongora, Quevedo, and
their numerous imitators. Before the reign of Philip the Fifth, this
corruption had reached its height; his accession to the crown of Spain,
and the encouragement he gave to letters, might have re-established the
national literature in its first lustre, if the evil had not struck root
so deeply, and if another cast of corrupters had not opposed themselves
to the views of this monarch, viz. the numerous translators of French
works, who disfigured the idiom by forming a French construction with
native words. Thus the curiosity of the poets of Queen Anne's time, if
it was ever excited, must have been speedily laid asleep; and (though we
may notice in Dryden, and perhaps in Donne, a study of Castilian,) it
was scarcely before the middle of the last century that this study began
permanently to tinge our literature. To Mr. Hayley, who first directed
public attention to the great merits of Dante, must be ascribed the
praise also of first calling our notice in any great degree to the
Spanish poets. Southey followed, and by his "Chronicle of the Cid" and
"Letters from Spain," quickened the curiosity excited by Mr. Hayley's
analysis and translated specimens of the Araucana of Ercilla. Lord
Holland's admirable dissertation on the genius and writings of Lope de
Vega, gave us a clearer insight into the literature of Spain, whilst the
French invasion brought us into a more intimate connexion and
acquaintance with her chivalrous people; nor could the many English
visitants which this drew to her shores view the remains which she keeps
of Arabian and Moorish magnificence, or even listen to her language,
which preserves such striking vestiges of oriental majesty, without
having their imagination led back to her days of literary illumination,
and without deriving some taste for the productions of her poets. The
struggle which she then made, and that which she is now making, first
against the unhallowed grasp of foreign coercion, and next of that
priestly tyranny which has so long cramped her political and
intellectual energies, have excited in every British bosom the most
cordial sympathy; and it is evident that from these causes, there is a
growing attention amongst us to her language and literature. Since the
present volume was begun, a translation has appeared of the excellent
work of Bouterewek, on Spanish and Portuguese poetry; another is going
through the press of Sismondi "Sur la Littérature du Midi de l'Europe;"
and Mr. Lockhart has just given us a choice selection of those beautiful
old Spanish ballads, which, as Mr. Rogers observes of the narratives of
the old Spanish chroniclers, 'have a spirit like the freshness of waters
at the fountain head, and are so many moving pictures of the actions,
manners, and thoughts of their cotemporaries;' like rough gems redeemed
from an oriental mine, they have assumed under his hand a polish and a
price that must render them indispensable to the cabinets of our men of
taste. Nor, in speaking of those whose labours have tended to spread a
knowledge of Hesperian treasure, must we pass over without due praise
the masterly notices on Spanish poetry, which Mr. Frere and Mr. Bowring
are understood to have given forth in the Quarterly and Restrospective
Reviews.