[835] “Conquista de la Bética, Poema Heróico de Juan de la Cueva,” 1603, reprinted in the fourteenth and fifteenth volumes of the collection of Fernandez, (Madrid, 1795), with a Preface, which is, I think, by Quintana, and is very good. A notice of Cueva occurs in the Spanish translation of Sismondi, Tom. I. p. 285; and a number of his unpublished works are said to be in the possession of the Counts of Aguila in Seville. Semanario Pintoresco, 1846, p. 250.
[836] “El Pelayo del Pinciano,” Madrid, 1605, 12mo, twenty cantos, filling above six hundred pages, with a poor attempt at the end, after the manner of Tasso, to give an allegorical interpretation to the whole. I notice in N. Antonio “La Iberiada, de los Hechos de Scipion Africano, por Gaspar Savariego de Santa Anna,” Valladolid, 1603, 8vo. I have never seen it. “La Patrona de Madrid Restituida,” by Salas Barbadillo, an heroic poem in honor of Our Lady of Atocha, printed in 1608, and reprinted, Madrid, 1750, 12mo, which I possess, is worthless and does not need to be noticed.
[837] “La Numantina del Licenciado Don Francisco Mosquera de Barnuevo, etc., dirigida á la nobilissima Ciudad de Soria y á sus doce Linages y Casas á ellas agregadas,” Sevilla, 1612, 4to. He says “it was a book of his youth, printed when his hairs were gray”; but it shows none of the judgment of mature years.
“La Liga deshecha por la Expulsion de los Moriscos de los Reynos de España,” Madrid, 1612, 12mo. It was printed, therefore, long before Vasconcellos fought against Spain, and contains fulsome compliments to Philip III., which must afterwards have given their author no pleasure. (Barbosa, Tom. II. p. 701.) The poem consists of about twelve hundred octave stanzas.
“La España Defendida,” by Christ. Suarez de Figueroa, Madrid, 1612, 12mo, and Naples, 1644, belongs to the same date, making, in fact, three heroic poems in one year.
[838] “Hespaña Libertada, Parte Primera, por Doña Bernarda Ferreira de Lacerda, dirigida al Rey Católico de las Hespañas, Don Felipe Tercero deste Nombre, nuestro Señor,” (Lisboa, 1618, 4to), was evidently intended as a compliment to the Spanish usurpers, and, in this point of view, is as little creditable to its author as it is in its poetical aspect. Parte Segunda was published by her daughter, Lisboa, 1673, 4to. Bernarda de Lacerda was a lady variously accomplished. Lope de Vega, who dedicated to her his eclogue entitled “Phylis,” (Obras Sueltas, Tom. X. p. 193), compliments her on her writing Latin with purity. She published a volume of poetry, in Portuguese, Spanish, and Italian, in 1634, and died in 1644.
“El Fernando, ó Sevilla Restaurada, Poema Heróico, escrito con los Versos de la Gerusalemme Liberata, etc., por Don Juan Ant. de Vera y Figueroa, Conde de la Roca,” etc., Milan, 1632, 4to, pp. 654. He died 1658. Antonio, ad verb.
“Nápoles Recuperada por el Rey Don Alonso, Poema Heróico de D. Francisco de Borja, Príncipe de Esquilache,” etc. Zaragoza, 1651, Amberes, 1658, 4to. A notice of his honorable and adventurous life will be given, when we speak of Spanish lyrical poetry, where he was more successful than he was in epic.
There were two or three other poems called heroic that appeared after these; but they do not need to be recalled. One of the most absurd of them is the “Orfeo Militar,” in two parts, by Joan de la Victoria Ovando; the first being on the siege of Vienna by the Turks, and the second on that of Buda, both printed in 1688, 4to, at Malaga, where their author enjoyed a military office; but neither, I think, was much read beyond the limits of the city that produced them.
[839] See what is said in Chap. III. on Acuña, Cetina, Silvestre, etc.