[293] See the preface of Blas Nasarre, the latest editor of the plays of Cervantes.

[294] This at least is stated by Nasarre.

[295] See the account prefixed to the sixth vol. of the Parnaso Español, and Dieze’s Remarks on Velasquez, p. 200.

[296] Primeras tragedias Españoles, de Antonio de Silva, is the title of the edition which I have now before me, published at Madrid, in 1577, in 8vo.

[297] This piece of silly adulation, is entitled Hesperodia; that is to say, evening song or morning song. The former, however, appears to be the more appropriate title, since the author doubtless wrote it in his old age. It has been drawn from the obscurity in which it ought to have remained, and printed in the eighth vol. of the Parnaso Español. Bermudez, in an affected strain of language, and with true Dominican fanaticism, extols the monstrous barbarity with which the great Duke of Alba persecuted the heretics of the Netherlands, and made “the cold northern waters flow the more fiercely from the infusion of warm blood.”

[298] Under these titles they are reprinted in the Parnaso Español, vol. vi.

[299] It commences in the following manner:—

Otro cielo, otro sol, me parece este,
del que gozava yo sereno, y claro,
alla de donde vengo, ay triste cielo,
como en ti veo el tranze de mis hados.
Ay que donde no veo aquellos ojos,
que alumbran estos mios, quanto veo
me pone horror, y grima, y se me antoja.
Mas triste que la noche, y mas escuro,
alla (ay dolor) los dexo alla en Coymbra
tierra donde parò la hedad dorada,
ò que no es tierra aquella, parayso
la llamo de deleytes y frescuras.
Alli tan claro es todo que aun la noche
mas dia me parescè que de dia,
alli es esmalte del florido suelo,
mas que estrellado cielo representa;
alli el concento de las avezillas,
es un reclame dulze de las almas.

[300] A few lines of this scene will serve to shew how Bermudez has imitated the dialogic antitheses of the Greek tragedy.

In.Adonde huyre porque me dexen?
Se.Huyr auras de ti por tu remedio.
In.Ya no me vale hazer lo que no puedo.
Se.Tu mismo te pusiste en tal flaqueza.
In.No puedo, ni querria arrepentirme.
Se.Con essa voluntad el yerro cresce.
In.Si es yerro como dizes, otros uvo.
Se.Uno, mas toda via fueron yerros.