[Page 230].—l. 9. Padilla: Juan de Padilla, leader of a party of Comuneros, who, rising against the exactions of Charles V., were successful for a while. Their fortunes declined, however, and Padilla was finally captured and executed (1522).
[Page 231].—l. 9. Columnas de Hércules: i.e., the promontories of Calpe and Ábila at the Strait of Gibraltar.
l. 15. Mucio: Mucius Scævola; captured after his attempt to kill Lars Porsena, the enemy of Rome, he plunged his hand into the fire to show his contempt for pain: cf. [p. 232], l. 4.
[Page 232].—l. 5. Allusion to the invasion of Rome by the Gallic chief Brennus in 390 B.C. The Romans bought peace with 1,000 pounds of gold.
l. 7. Camilo: after the capture of Rome by Brennus, Camillus was appointed dictator, and is said to have defeated the Gauls.
POESÍAS DEL SIGLO XIX
[MANUEL JOSÉ QUINTANA]. A Tyrtæan poet whose lyrics, together with those of his friend Gallego (cf. [p. 244]), voice the sentiments of a party sprung up to combat the French invader. As patriots, both Quintana and Gallego were bitterly opposed to French domination; as poets they meekly submitted to the French classic rules and carried on the traditions of Luzán and Meléndez Valdés. The heroic odes of Quintana are the best that he has given us. Plastic in form and full of patriotic ardor, they reveal him at the same time as the advocate of liberalism, and of political and social advancement. His other odes (Á la mar, Á la imprenta, Á la hermosura, etc.), are admirable, too, but somewhat artificial in tone. Quintana’s dramatic attempts were infelicitous; as an historian (Vidas de los españoles célebres) he attained a moderate success. Cf. his Poesías in vol. 19 of the Biblioteca de autores españoles; and see Menéndez y Pelayo, D. Manuel José Quintana, La poesía lírica al principiar el siglo XIX, Madrid, 1887; E. Piñeyro, M. J. Quintana, 381 Chartres, 1892; Blanco-García, La literatura española, etc., I, 1 ff.; Ticknor, III, 332 ff.
[Page 235].—l. 1. In March, 1808, a rising of the people and the guards swept away the intriguing minister Godoy, and forced the inept Carlos IV. to abdicate in favor of his son Fernando VII., then an adversary of the French.
[Page 238].—l. 2. Desenterrad, etc.: the most powerful passage of the poem.—Tirteo: Tyrtæus, a Greek lyric poet of the seventh century B.C., who is said to have roused the Lacedæmonians to heroic fury in battle by his songs.
l. 5. Fuenfría: a pass in the Guadarrama mountains in the province of Segovia.