Andres Rey de Artieda, a brave Arragonian officer, was a very learned scholar and a particular friend of the Argensolas. Among other works, he wrote poetic epistles which are full of good sense and natural feeling.[420] His sonnets are remarkable for their novel and poignant style.[421]
Gregorio Morillo imitated Juvenal in his didactic satires, and vented his spleen in well-turned verses.[422]
Luis Barahona de Soto is, in preference to many of his contemporaries, entitled to an honourable place among Spanish poets. He was born in the province of Granada, and was a physician by profession. His eclogues resemble those of Garcilaso de la Vega; and his canciones abound in romantic grace.[423] His satires, which were lately republished, have the spirit of Juvenal, but want the delicacy of Horace; they are, however, written in a clear and energetic style. This writer moreover gained celebrity by a continuation of the Orlando Furioso, which was highly esteemed by Cervantes, and which is entitled, Las Lagrimas de Angelica, (the Tears of Angelica).[424]
Pedro Soto de Rojas, who was a particular favourite of Lope de Vega, endeavoured to introduce the academic systems of Italy, which had never been successfully imitated in Spain. A literary society established at Madrid, after the Italian fashion, received the ludicrous title of Academia Selvaje, (Academy of Savages;) and in this society Soto de Rojas was distinguished by the surname of l’Ardiente. His eclogues have the usual character of Spanish poems of that class, clothed in elegant and harmonious language.[425]
Luis Martin, or Martinez de la Plaza, an ecclesiastic of Granada, a province fertile in literary talent, was particularly celebrated for the grace of his madrigals, and other small poems of a similar kind.[426]
Balthazar del Alcazar, who appears to have been a native of Andalusia, sought to distinguish himself as a writer of epigrammatic madrigals. In his comic madrigals,[427] he was, however, less successful than in those of gallantry.[428] He also appears to have been one of the first Spanish poets who wrote odes in sapphic feet, in so far as the Spanish language would permit the employment of that measure.[429]
Gonzalo de Argote y Molina, one of those brave men, who, in the reign of Philip II. combated with enthusiasm for the honour of their country and their king, but whose valour remained unrequited, was more distinguished as an historian than as a poet. To his literary patriotism the Spaniards were indebted for the publication of the Infante Don Manuel’s Conde Lucanor.[430] His poems are, however, worthy of honourable notice. An ardent love of country is the soul of his canciones and other lyric compositions.[431]
Francisco de Figueroa spent a portion of his life in Italy, in the twofold capacity of an officer and a statesman. During his residence among the Italians, he enjoyed a degree of public esteem which was extended to few of his countrymen. He wrote poems in Italian as well as in Spanish. Among his friends and admirers he was called the divine, and he was ranked among the most eminent Petrarchists of his age. His amatory sonnets are written in a pleasing and natural style, and abound in the softest touches of romantic melancholy.[432] The admirers of Francisco de Figueroa likewise conferred on him the surname of the Spanish Pindar; but that was a mere whim.[433]
Christoval Suarez de Figueroa, who was an imitator of Montemayor, wrote a pastoral romance, entitled Amarillis, which was very generally read at the time of its publication. He also made a translation of Guarini’s Pastor Fido, and cultivated with some degree of success the Italian lyric forms of pastoral romance. Some of the poems of the latter class contained in the Romancero General, appear to be written by this author. His Endechas, or Elegiac Songs in the popular style, though not particularly rich in ideas, are nevertheless pleasing with respect to language and versification.[434]
Another poet of this name, Bartholomè Cayrasco de Figueroa, is the author of a long series of spiritual canciones and tales called cantos, which were much esteemed on account of the edification attributed to their contents. In these poems he explains the mysticism of the christian religion, according to the catholic dogmas and the scholastic ideas of christian virtue, in a manner more pedantic than poetic; but yet in pure and elegant language. He was likewise one of the Spanish imitators of the Italian verse with dactyllic terminations, called versos esdrujolos, from the Italian versi sdruccioli.[435]