The fiction on which this second song is founded must, notwithstanding its native beauty, appear a very absurd fancy to the naturalist, as it describes a nightingale wooing a turtle dove.
[69] “Fizo assaz buenas canciones,” says the Marquis of Santillana, in his antiquated Spanish, speaking of his grandfather. The remaining notices which he gives of the origin of Spanish poetry communicate nothing, in addition to what has been already mentioned, on those things respecting which it is most desirable to be informed.
[70] See Velasquez, according to Dieze, page 302.
[71] See Sarmiento, page 345.
[72] See the observations of Sarmiento, page 352.
[73] An extract made from this treatise of the Marquis of Villena by Gregorio Mayans, may be found in the Origines de la lengua Española, tom. ii. pag. 321. The whole work probably exists in manuscript in Spanish libraries.
[74] Tanto es el provecho, que viene desta dotrina a la vida civil, quitando ocio y ocupando los generosos ingenios en tan honesta investigacion, que las otras naciones desearon y procuraron haver entre si escuela desta dotrina, y por esso fue ampliada por el mundo en diversas partes.—The measure of this sonorous period will not be overlooked.
[75] Temporum iniquitate sublimi virtute superata, honorem vitæ ac bonum nomen fallacibus delinimentis omnibus, quæ magnam quamque fortunam velut pedissequi comitantur, præferebat, says, in allusion to him, Nicolas Antonio, who at the same time refers to the Chronicles, from which he had drawn his information respecting the Marquis of Santillana.
[76] This elegy is inserted along with other poems by the Marquis in all the editions of the Cancionero general, immediately after the spiritual poems. No complete collection of the works of this celebrated man has yet been printed.
[77] That the Marquis had read Dante can scarcely be doubted, for he quotes him in this poem:—