[911] An excellent life of Villegas is prefixed to the edition of his Works, Madrid, 1774, 2 tom. 8vo, said by Guarinos (Biblioteca de Escritores del Reinado de Carlos III., Madrid, 1785, 8vo, Tom. V. p. 19) to have been written by Vicente de los Rios.
[912] In the edition of his poetry published by himself and at his own expense, in 1617, 4to, at Naxera, his birthplace, he gives on the title-page a print of the rising sun, with the stars growing dim, and two mottoes to explain its meaning: the first, “Sicut sol matutinus,” and the other, “Me surgente, quid istæ?“—the istæ whom he thus slights being Lope de Vega, Quevedo, and indeed the whole galaxy of the best period of Spanish literature. Lope seems to have been a little annoyed at this impertinence and vanity of Villegas; for, in allusion to it, he says, in the midst of a passage otherwise laudatory,—
Aunque dixo que todos se escondiesen,
Quando los rayos de su ingenio viesen.
Laurel de Apolo, Madrid, 1630, 4to, Silva iii.
For the harsh words of Villegas about Cervantes, see Navarrete, Vida, § 128.
Mis dulces cantilenas,
Mis suaves delicias,
A los veinte limadas