[289] “Lima Fundada, Poema Heróico de Don Pedro de Peralta Barnuevo,” Lima, 1732, 4to, about 700 pages; but so ill paged that it is not easy to determine.
[290] “Santa Casilda, Poema en Octavas Reales, por el R. P. Fr. Pedro de Reynosa,” Madrid, 1727, 4to. It is in seven cantos, and each canto has a sort of codicil to it, affectedly called a Contrapunto.—“La Eloquencia del Silencio, Poema Heróico, por Miguel de la Reyna Zevallos,” Madrid, 1738, 4to. Of the mock-heroic poems mentioned in the text, one is “La Prosérpina, Poema Heróico, por D. Pedro Silvestre,” Madrid, 1721, 4to,—twelve mortal cantos. The other is “La Burromaquia,” which is better, but still not amusing. It is unfinished, and is found in the “Obras Póstumas de Gabriel Alvarez de Toledo.” The divisions are not called “Cantos,” but “Brayings.” I have seen very ridiculous extracts from a poem by Father Butron on Santa Teresa, printed in 1722, and from one on St. Jerome, by P. M. Lara, 1726, but I have never happened to fall in with the poems themselves, which seem to be as bad as any of their class.
[291] “Obras Poéticas Lýricas, por el Coronel D. Eugenio Gerardo Lobo,” Madrid, 1738, 4to.—“Poesías Lýricas, y Joco-Serias, su Autor D. Joseph Joachim Benegasi y Luxan,” Madrid, 1743, 4to.—Gab. Alvarez de Toledo, ut ante.—Antonio Muñoz, “Aventuras en Verso y en Prossa,” (sic,) no date, but licensed 1739.
[292] “Sagradas Flores del Parnaso, Consonancias Métricas de la bien Templada Lyra de Apolo, que á la reverente Católica Accion de haver ido accompañando sus Magestades el Ssmo Sacramento que iba á Darse por viatico á una Enferma el Dia 28 de Novembre, 1722, cantaron los mejores Cisnes de España,” 4to. I give the title of the first collection in full, as an indication of the bad taste of its contents. Both collections, taken together, make about 200 pages, and contain poems by about fifty authors, generally in the worst and most affected style,—the very dregs of Gongorism.
[293] The “Sátira contra los Malos Escritores de su Tiempo” is commonly attributed to José Gerardo de Herbas; but Tapia (Civilisacion, Tom. IV. p. 266) says it was written by José Cobo de la Torre, besides which it is inserted in the “Rebusco de las Obras Literarias de J. F. de Isla,” (Madrid, 1790, 12mo,) as if it were unquestionably Isla’s. It first appeared in the second edition of the sixth volume of the “Diario de los Literatos”;—the earliest periodical work in the spirit of modern criticism that was published in Spain, and one so much in advance of the age that it did not survive its second year, having been begun in 1737, and gone on one year and nine months, till it made seven small volumes. It was in vain that it was countenanced by the king, and favored by the leading persons at court. It was too large a work; it was a new thing, which Spaniards rarely like; and it was severe in its criticisms, so that the authors of the time generally took the field against it, and broke it down.
To the same period with the Satire of Pitillas belongs the poem on “Deucalion,” by Alonso Verdugo de Castilla, Count of Torrepalma. It is an imitation of Ovid, in about sixty octave stanzas, somewhat remarkable for its versification. But in a better period it would not be noticed.
[294] “Los Tobias, su Vida escrita en Octavas, por D. Vicente Bacallar y Sanna, Marques de San Phelipe,” etc., 4to, pp. 178, without date, but licensed 1709.—“Monarchia Hebrea,” Madrid, 1727, 2 tom. 4to.—“Comentarios de la Guerra de España hasta el Año 1725,” Genoa, no date, 2 tom. 4to. Of the last there is a poor continuation, bringing the history down to 1742, entitled, “Continuacion á los Comentarios, etc., por D. Joséph del Campo Raso,” Madrid, 1756-63, 2 tom. 4to.
[295] Pitillas, Sátira. Isla, Á los que degenerando del Carácter Español, afectan ser Estrangeros. Rebusco, p. 178.
[296] Latassa, Bib. Nueva, Tom. V. p. 12, and Preface to the edition of Luzan’s Poética, by his son, 1789. His poetry has never been collected and published, but portions of it are found in Sedano, Quintana, etc. The octaves he recited at the opening of the Academy of Fine Arts, in 1752, and published at p. 21 of the “Abertura Solemne,” etc., printed in honor of the occasion (Madrid, folio); and the similar poems recited by him at a distribution of prizes by the same Academy, in 1754, and published in their “Relacion,” etc., (Madrid, folio, pp. 51-61,) prove rather the dignity of his social position than any thing else. Latassa gives a long account of his unpublished works.
[297] It is prefixed to the edition of Enzina’s Cancionero, 1496, folio, and, I suppose, to the other editions; and fills nine short chapters.