Spanish literature [it has been said] takes its root in French and Italian soil ... yet it may be claimed for Spain ... that she used her models without compromising her originality, absorbing here, annexing there, and finally dominating her first masters.
Her era of literary fame was to dawn under the Emperor Charles V., and reach its zenith with his son; but tokens of the coming glory may be traced to a much earlier date when, amid the florid weeds of imitation or pedantry, there yet bloomed occasional flowers of genuine beauty and sweetness. Such are the Coplas de Manrique, stanzas written on the death of his father by the brilliant young soldier Jorge Manrique, a partisan of Queen Isabel in her early struggles. Longfellow has rendered them into English verse with a charm, that, if it does not attain to the imperishable grandeur of the original, yet in its quick sympathy bridges the centuries.
COINS, FERDINAND
FROM LAFUENTE’S “HISTORIA GENERAL DE ESPAÑA,” VOL. VII.
COINS, FERDINAND
FROM LAFUENTE’S “HISTORIA GENERAL DE ESPAÑA,” VOL. VII.
Behold of what delusive worth
The bubbles we pursue on earth,
The shapes we chase;
Amid a world of treachery;