Ecloga á Claudio.
[90]Prologo del Editor.
[91]In his epistle to don Antonio de Mendoza, Lope alludes to his military life, but without assigning any cause for its assumption. "True it is," he says, "that in early life I left my country and friends to encounter the vicissitudes of war. I sailed on a wide sea towards foreign lands—where I served first with my sword, before I described events with my pen. My inclinations caused me to break off the career of arms, and the Muses gave me a more tranquil life."
[92]There is a very obscure stanza following this, it runs thus:—
"¿ Quien te dixera che al exento labio,
que apenas de un cabello se ofendia,
amanciera dia
de tan pesado agravio
que cubierto de nieve agradecida?
¡ no separaos si fu e cometa ó vida!"
In the Quarterly Review this is translated. "Who would have thought that this chin which had scarcely a hair upon it, should have sometimes been found in the morning so shagged with snow that it might have been mistaken for a comet?" This is obviously wrong. He alludes to his youth at the time of sailing with the Armada, and his age at the time of writing the eclogue to Claudio; and the swiftness with which the interval had passed. "Who could have told thee that there should come a day when the lip then scarcely deformed by a hair, should be so heavy covered with welcome snow (his beard turned white), [and that so swiftly that], we do not know whether it was a comet or life?" Nothing, however, can be so ill expressed and obscure.
[93]Quarterly Review, vol. XVIII.
[94]Ecloga á Claudio. Quarterly Review, XVIII.
[95]Montalvan and the other biographers mention only one daughter, Feliciana, the child of his second wife. The reader will presently see that we derive our knowledge of the existence of Marcella from Lope himself. It seems probable that she was the offspring of his first marriage, since when he speaks of Feliciana as an infant, he mentions that Marcella was fifteen. She entered a convent and was perhaps dead when Montalvan wrote.
[96]That unknown ladies should write anonymous letters to poets expressive of their admiration and sympathy, is, it seems, no mere modern fashion. The epistle trom Amaryllis to Belardo, was certainly not written by Lope himself—it is too full of enthusiastic praise; and the style is not his. It is well written, and interesting. Amaryllis addresses him from the New World. She describes herself as a creole, born of noble parents, in Peru. She and her sister were left early orphans—both endowed with beauty and talent. Her sister marries, but she dedicates herself to a life of celibacy, though she does appear to be a nun; she loves and cultivates poetry. She writes to Lope de Vega to offer her friendship—una alma pura á tu valor rendida—accepta el don, que puedes estimallo—and to exhort him to write religious poetry; and in particular, to celebrate St. Dorothea—a saint hitherto unsung, whom she and her sister hold in particular reverence. Lope replies with praises of her talents, and enters into a succinct account of his life, from which we have quoted, and says "I have written to you, Amaryllis, more than I ever thought to do concerning myself—this freedom proves my friendship for you." He concludes by inviting her to celebrate St. Dorothea herself, and bids her immortalise the memory of her heroic ancestors, and bestow on them the eternal laurel of her pen.