The Works of Garcilasso de la Vega, Surnamed the Prince of Castilian Poets, Translated into English Verse / With a Critical and Historical Essay on Spanish Poetry and a Life of the Author

LONDON: PRINTED BY JAMES MOYES, GREVILLE STREET.
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.
THE WORKS OF GARCILASSO DE LA VEGA, SURNAMED THE PRINCE OF CASTILIAN POETS, Translated into English Verse; WITH A CRITICAL AND HISTORICAL ESSAY ON SPANISH POETRY, AND A LIFE OF THE AUTHOR.
By J. H. WIFFEN.
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.
LONDON: PRINTED FOR HURST, ROBINSON, AND CO. 90, CHEAPSIDE, AND 8, PALL MALL.
1823.
TO JOHN, DUKE OF BEDFORD, IN PUBLIC LIFE THE STEADY FRIEND AND ASSERTOR OF OUR LIBERTIES; IN PRIVATE LIFE ALL THAT IS GENEROUS, DIGNIFIED, AND GOOD;
This Translation, IN GRATEFUL ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF THE LITERARY EASE THAT HAS LED TO ITS PRODUCTION,
IS, WITH DEEP RESPECT AND ADMIRATION, Inscribed BY THE AUTHOR.

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.