[217] “Las Guerras de los Estados Baxos, desde Maio, 1588, hasta el Año 1599,” Amberes, 1625 and 1635, 4to, and Barcelona, 1627. Ximeno, Tom. I. p. 338. He was ambassador to James I. of England, viceroy of Majorca, etc., and died in 1637, sixty-four years old.
[218] “Historia de los Movimientos, Separacion, y Guerra de Cataluña, por Francisco Manuel de Melo,” Lisboa, 1645, and several other editions; one by Sanchez, 1808, 12mo, and one at Paris, 1830. His poetry in Spanish has been mentioned, ante, II. 529. For his life and multitudinous works, see the “Bibliotheca Lusitana” of Diogo Barbosa Machado, (Lisboa, 1741-59, 4 tom. folio,) which I have often referred to, as to the great authority on all matters of fact in Portuguese literary history, though of little or no value for the literary opinions it expresses. It is one of the amplest and most important works of literary biography and bibliography ever published; but, unhappily, it is also one of the rarest, a large part of the impression of the first three volumes having been destroyed in the fire that followed the great earthquake at Lisbon in 1755. Its author, who gives some account of himself in his own work, was born in 1682, and died, I believe, in 1770.
[219] The work of Saavedra was continued, very poorly, by Alonso Nuñez de Castro, through the reign of Henry II., the labors of both making seven volumes in the edition of Madrid, 1789-90, 12mo, of which the first two only, coming down to 716, are by Saavedra.
[220] Mad. d’Aulnoy (Voyage, ed. 1693, Tom. II. pp. 17, 18) explains this custom, and shows to what an absurd and ridiculous length it was carried in the time of Solís.
[221] There are many editions of the “Conquista de México,” the first being that of Madrid, 1654, folio, and the best in two vols. 4to, Madrid, 1783. The author of the life prefixed to his poems says: “Solís left materials for a continuation of the History of Mexico, but they are not now known to exist.” A few of his letters, with a sketch of his life, by Mayans y Siscar, were published, as I have already noticed, in 1733. They appear again, carefully revised, in the “Cartas Morales,” etc., 1773. See, ante, II. 420, 549, [III. 136].
[222] From the times of Charles V. and Philip II., when, in Aragon and Castile, chroniclers were multiplied as a part of the pageantry of the court, the rest of the kingdoms that entered into the united Spanish monarchy began to desire to have their own separate histories, as we can see in Valencia, where those of Beuter, Escolano, and Diago were written. Besides this, a great number of the individual cities obtained their own separate annals from the hand of at least one author,—sometimes works of authority, like that on Segovia by Colmenares, and that on Seville by Avila y Zuñiga. But though more of such local histories were written in Spain between the middle of the sixteenth and the end of the seventeenth centuries, than were written during the same period, I believe, in any other country in Europe, none of them, so far as I know, has such peculiar merit as to be noticeable in the literary history of the country. Still, the spirit that produced them in such great numbers, and especially the spirit which, during the reign of Philip II., made, with so much care and cost, the vast collections of documents yet to be found in the Castle of Simancas and the convent of the Escurial, should not be overlooked.
When the chapter on the Chronicles of the fifteenth century (First Period, Chap. IX.) was printed, I had not seen the Chronicle by the Prince of Viana, “Crónica de los Reyes de Navarra,”—of which there is only one edition, that of Pamplona, 1843, 4to, by Don José Yanguas y Miranda. It was written in 1454 by the Prince Don Carlos, to whom I have already alluded, (Vol. I. p. 332, note,) who died, forty years old, in 1461, and whose translation of Aristotle’s Ethics was printed at Saragossa in 1509. (Mendez, Typographia, 1796, p. 193.) The Chronicle was carefully prepared for publication from four manuscripts, and it embraces the history of Navarre from the earliest times to the accession of Charles III. in 1390, noticing a few events in the beginning of the next century. Besides the life of the author, it makes about 200 pages, written in a modest, simple style, but not so good as that of some of the contemporary Castilian chronicles. A few of the old traditions concerning the little mountain kingdom, whose early annals it records, are, however, well preserved; some of them being told as they are found in the General Chronicle of Spain, and some with additions or changes. The portions where I have observed most traces of connection between the two are in the Chronicle of the Prince of Viana, Book I. chapters 9-14, as compared with the latter portion of the General Chronicle, Part III. Sometimes the Prince deviates from all received accounts, as when he calls Cava the wife of Count Julian, instead of calling her his daughter; but, on the whole, his Chronicle agrees with the common traditions and histories of the period to which it relates.
[223] Don Quixote, Parte I. c. 39.
[224] In the great contest between the two liturgies, the Roman and the Gothic, which disturbed the Church of Spain for so long a period, Alfonso VI. determined to throw a copy of each into a fire duly kindled and blessed for the purpose, and give the supremacy to the one that should come out unconsumed. The Gothic MS. was successful; but the king broke his word, and tossed it back into the flames, thus giving rise, it is said, to the proverb, “Alla van leyes adonde quieren reyes”; or, freely translated, “Laws obey kings.” (Sarmiento, § 411.) A similar historical origin is given to the proverb, “Ni quito rey, ni pongo rey”; which is traced to the personal quarrel of Peter the Cruel and his brother and successor, Don Enrique. Clemencin, ed. Don Quixote, Tom. VI., 1839, p. 225.
[225] Dissertation of Cortés in Mayans y Siscar, Orígenes, Tom. II. p. 211.