[9.]—Fray Luis Ponce de León (1527-1591), born at Belmonte; educated at the University of Salamanca; became an Augustinian monk. While a professor at the same university he was accused by the Inquisition and imprisoned from 1572 to 1576, while his trial proceeded. He was acquitted, and he taught till his death, which occurred just after he had been chosen Vicar-General of his Order. The greatest of the mystic poets, he wrote as well religious works in prose (Los nombres de Cristo, La perfecta casada), and in verse translated Virgil, Horace and other classical authors and parts of the Old Testament. In gentleness of character and in the purity in which he wrote his native tongue, he resembles the Frenchman Pascal. His poems are in vol. 37 of the Bibl. de Aut. Esp. Cf. Ticknor, Period II, Cap. IX, and Introduction, p. xxii. La vida retirada is written in imitation of Horace's Beatus ille.
[9.—17 to 10.—3.] In these lines there is much poetic inversion of word-order. The logical order would be: Que ('for') el estado de los soberbios grandes no le enturbia el pecho, ni se admira del dorado techo, en jaspes sustentado, fabricado del sabio moro.
[5. pregonera], as its gender indicates, modifies voz.
[12.—10.] In the sixteenth century great fortunes were made by Spaniards who exploited the mines of their American colonies across the seas.
[11.] Note, this unusual enjambement; but the mente of adverbs still has largely the force of a separate word.
Soneto: Á Cristo Crucificado. This famous sonnet has been ascribed to Saint Theresa and to various other writers, but without sufficient proof. Cf. Fouché-Delbosc in Revue Hispanique, II, 120-145; and ibid., VI, 56-57. The poem was translated by J.Y. Gibson (The Cid Ballads, etc., 1887, II, 144), and there is also a version attributed to Dryden.
[13.]—Lope Félix de Vega Carpio (1562-1635) was the most fertile playwright ever known to the world. Alone he created the Spanish drama almost out of nothing. Born at Madrid, where he spent most of his life, Lope was an infant prodigy who fulfilled the promise of his youth. His first play was written at the age of thirteen. He fought against the Portuguese in the expedition of 1583 and took part in the disastrous Armada of 1588. His life was marked by unending literary success, numerous love-affairs and occasional punishments therefor. In 1614 he was ordained priest. For the last twenty years of his life he was the acknowledged dictator of Spanish letters.
Lope's writings include some 2000 plays, of which perhaps 500 are extant, epics, pastorals, parodies, short stories and minor poems beyond telling. He undertook to write in every genre attempted by another and seldom scored a complete failure. His Obras completas are being published by the Spanish Academy (1890-); vol. 1 contains his life by Barrera. Most of his non-dramatic poems are in vol. 38 of the Bibl. de Aut. Esp.; others are in vols. 16 and 35. There is a Life in English by H.A. Rennert (1904). Cf. also Introduction, p. xxiv.
Canción de la Virgen is a lullaby sung by the Madonna to her sleeping child in a palm grove. The song occurs in Lope's pastoral, Los pastores de Belén (1612). In Ticknor (II, 177), there is a metrical translation of the Canción.