[762] Boswell’s Life of Johnson, ed. Croker, London, 1831, 8vo, Tom. II. p. 501.
[763] The first edition of it is in black letter, without the name of place or printer, 4to, 140 leaves, and is dated 1549. Another edition appeared as early as 1553; supposed by Antonio to have been the oldest. It is on the Index of 1667, p. 245, for expurgation.
[764] Ginguené, Hist. Lit. d’Italie, Tom. VII. pp. 544, 550.
[765] “I have no mind,” he says in the Prólogo, “to be so strict in the translation of this book, as to confine myself to give it word for word. On the contrary, if any thing occurs, which sounds well in the original language, and ill in our own, I shall not fail to change it or to suppress it.” Ed. 1549, f. 2.
[766] “Every time I read it,” says Garcilasso in a letter to Doña Gerónima Palova de Almogovar, prefixed to the first edition, “it seems to me as if it had never been written in any other language.” This letter of Garcilasso is very beautiful in point of style.
[767] Morales, Discourse on the Castilian Language, Obras de Oliva, Madrid, 1787, 12mo, Tom. I. p. xli.
[768] Cancionero General, 1535, f. 153.
[769] Petrarca, Vita di Madonna Laura, Canz. 9 and 14. But Boscan’s imitations of them are marred by a good many conceits. Some of his sonnets, however, are free from this fault, and are natural and tender.
Y no es gusto tambien assi entenderos,