wards of Catharine de la Cerda, a person of high family, and for some time maid of honour to Margaret, Queen of Philip III. But Hozes observes, no doubt from his own knowledge, that many of these poems were written as exercises of poetic fancy, and not properly in his own character.

To this portion of his life are also attributed many of his lighter humorous and satirical effusions, which, it is said, were not always free from personalities. But whatever offence he may have given in this way, it was the effect of natural impetuosity rather than malice; and his regret for it is attested to have been sincere and lasting. In his ordinary conversation and intercourse with other men, no man could be more clear of offence he was gay, ardent, and sparkling with wit: but his discourse was always candid and ingenuous. He did not forfeit the esteem even of those whom he might seem to have provoked.!

(8.) An early historical date is of course to be given to a spirited "Song on the Battle of Lepanto," the most glorious warlike achievement of the reign of Philip II. The story has been often told by the Muse of History, but never more vividly than in the last pages written by the pen of the late W. H. Prescott.* The more vivid must be our regret that this truthful historian of the times of Spanish greatness should have left his tale half told. Gongora was, indeed, only a boy in 1571, and we cannot suppose

*Hist. of Philip II. Book v. c. x.

the song to have been written when the news of the great victory was first brought to Spain; but no doubt it haunted his youngest poetic dreams, and this song may have been one of those productions which attracted the early notice of Cervantes already referred to.

(9.) The "Ode on the Armada," must have been written before the sailing of the Spanish fleet in 1588. This is therefore in some measure a juvenile performance. It appears to the present writer scarcely to deserve the preference which has been given to it among the lyrical compositions of our poet. But if the English reader can pardon the scandal against Queen Elizabeth, he will find that Gongora expresses himself towards the conclusion as if he doubted the good policy of attacking England, and would rather have seen his country employing its naval forces against the piratical Moors. A better ode is that " the Festival of St. Hermengild," which was occasioned by a public celebration at Seville, and must be dated sometime while the poet still resided in Andalusia.

on

(10.) There are not many more of his poems which refer to the events of the reign of Philip II., or which can be certainly dated as written during that reign. He has two sonnets, and a complimentary poem in triplets, addressed to Lewis Cabrera, the historian of that monarch. But Cabrera does not appear to have published the First Part of his History till the year 1619, more than twenty years after the death of Philip. The Second Part, which Gongora speaks of as if he

had seen it, was never published; and a portion of it only is said to be now preserved in MS. in the library of the Royal Academy of History at Madrid.* The cause of its suppression seems to speak something for its historical importance. It was to have touched upon the ticklish subject of Antonio Perez, and the arbitrary proceedings of Philip with the Arragonese for their rescue of that notable prisoner.+ The Arragonese petitioned Philip III. that it should not be printed till it had been sent to Zaragoza; where they committed the examination of it to their own distinguished poet and historian, Bartholomew Argensola. Argensola having made his notes and emendations in the margin, it was returned to the Council of State at Madrid; but, the author not consenting to its appearance with these annotations, the work has remained thus far lost to public view.

(11.) There is a spirited sonnet on the portrait of Alvar Bazan, first Marquis of Santa Cruz, a Spanish naval commander of some distinction at Lepanto, and afterwards at the Azores ; who died, perhaps, under some chagrin or affront received from his royal master when the king complained of his slowness in equipping the Armada, which he was to have commanded.§ His death occasioned the command to devolve on the

* Prologo á las Relaciones de Cabrera, Madrid, 1857, p. vi. + Geddes, Tracts, vol. ii. Relaciones de Ant. Perez.

Sir Walter Raleigh, Hist. B. v. c. i. sec. vi. and ix. ? Miñana, Hist. de España, lib. ix. c. iv.

Duke of Medina Sidonia, a lubber, who was no match for Howard or Drake, and, although he was of the race of Guzman the Good, shewed no great alacrity when a courageous decision to invest the port of Plymouth was proposed by one of his subordinates.* He did no better afterwards in the little wars with the Moorish pirates in the following reign; and appears to have been remarkable for nothing, in the decline of life, except his great wealth and little influence. When Gongora came to write his epitaph, in a poem hardly worth translating, he thought it best to confine himself chiefly to the praise of the sculpture on his monument.

(12.) Philip II. is now running the gauntlet of Mr. Motley's historical commentary. His memory is not very much cherished at present even in Spain; and it is not very likely that any English writer will do for him what has been done lately for Henry VIII. or other supposed sufferers from prevalent prejudice. Let nothing be said or imagined by the writer or reader of these pages, to diminish from the feelings with which an Englishman must regard the deliverance wrought by the English navy in 1588, when

-"Those huge castles of Castilia's king,
That vainly threatned kingdomes to displace,
Like flying doves they did before them chase."

But an Englishman can afford to do justice to a proud and stubborn foe, when he sustains an unbroken spirit

* Id. ibid. c. v.

in adversity. It is well known that the news of the ill-success of the Armada was brought to Philip, as he stood watching the building of the Escorial. He received the message, but remained to mark the raising of a great stone to its place in the palaceconvent's wall; then turning to the messenger he said, "I sent them forth to fight with the enemy: I could not secure them from the tempestuous winds and waves." The suffering seamen and soldiers who returned he relieved with all charitable care. Candour must allow there was more dignity in this than in the reception which George II. gave to the Duke of Cumberland after Closter-Seven.

Gongora admired Alvar Bazan. He admired also the Count of Fuentes, one of Philip's generals, who did gallantly at Cambray, governed well in Lombardy, and whose memory has been recently honoured in a sweet poem of William Wordsworth's, inspired amidst the ruins of his abode near the Lake of Como.* But he does not appear to have sought any nearer approach to the Court of this sovereign, whom perhaps he regarded at a distance with something like the fox's caution towards the sick lion. We have no account of his having visited the capital before Philip's death.

(13.) Before this time Lope de Vega had made his acquaintance, probably in the year 1593. On a visit to the southern province, he sought an introduc

*The poem entitled "Fort Fuentes." Sedano, in Parnaso Esp. VIII. Ind. xxxviii. calls the Count of Fuentes a poet.