MAYANS Y SISCAR—BLAS NASSARE.
Among the contemporaries of Luzan, the royal librarian, Gregorio Mayans y Siscar, is entitled to praise, for having, in biographical, literary and rhetorical works, furnished many hints and notices which throw light on the history of Spanish poetry and eloquence. His collection of detached writings on the History of the Spanish Language, (Origenes de la Lengua Española), embraces more than the title promises; and among other things contains a well written discourse exhorting authors to pursue the true idea of Spanish eloquence.[594] But his diffuse Art of Rhetoric,[595] which he published twenty years later than the work last mentioned, is merely a formal compilation of the ideas and criticisms of Aristotle and modern writers. It might with equal propriety be entitled an art of poetry. The examples given from the poets are long and numerous.
Blas Antonio Nassare, prelate and academician, laboured to attain the same kind of merit. He was, however, so blinded by his predilection for French literature, that he considered the eight comedies of Cervantes, which he first restored to light, as parodies on the style of Lope de Vega.[596]