Venus, amongst other counsels, says to him:—
"Tell all thy feelings without fear or being swayed by shame,
To every amorous-looking miss, to every gadding dame;
Amongst a thousand, thou wilt scarce find one that e'er will blame
Thine unembarrassed suit, nor laugh to scorn thy tender flame.
If the first wave of the rough sea, when it comes roaring near,
Should frighten the rude mariner, he ne'er would plough the clear
With his brass-beaked ship; then ne'er let the first word severe,
The first frown, or the first repulse, affright thee from thy dear.
By cunning hardest hearts grow soft, walled cities fall; with care
High trees are felled, grave weights are raised; by cunning many swear:
By cunning many perjured are, and fishes by the snare
Are taken under the green wave; then why shouldst thou despair?"
Other passages much more striking might be quoted; and amongst them the description of the power of money, which has a severity and freedom, of which it would be difficult to find examples in other writers of that time, either in or out of Spain, though the independent Dante were to enter into the comparison; or the facetious apology and praise of little women, which begins:
I wish to make my speeches suit the season,
Short; for I always liked, the more I read,
Short sermons, little ladies, a brief reason;
We fructify on little and well said, &c.[1]
But the examples already quoted will suffice for our assertion. Sometimes the poet, weary perhaps of monotony and heaviness, varies from the measure which he generally uses, and introduces another combination of rhymes in songs which he mingles with his narrative; as, for instance, the following:—
Near the vale's fresh fountain,
Having past the mountain,
I found relief, at play
Of the first beams of day.
I thought to die upon
The mountain summits lone,
With cold and hunger, lost
Mid glaciers, snows, and frost.
Beside the sparkling rill,
At foot of a small hill,
A shepherdess I met,—
I see her smiling yet:
Her cheeks made e'en the red
Ripe roses pale; I said
To her, 'Good morrow, sweet,
I worship at thy feet!' &c.
Don Tomas Antonio Sanchez has published the works of almost all the authors mentioned, with illustrations, excellent, as well for the notices given of them, as for the elucidation of the text, which the antiquity and rudeness of the language, and the errors of manuscripts, by their complication, obscured. There, as in an armoury, rest these venerable antiques, precious objects of curiosity for the learned, of investigation for the grammarian, of observation for the philosopher and historian, whilst the poet, without losing time in studying them, salutes them with respect, as the cradle of his language and his art.