PART II. Garcilasso, Mendoza, and the other master-spirits were trained, who moulded Castilian literature into the new and more classical forms of later times. 156 It was under Gonsalvo de Cordova, that Leyva, Pescara, and those great captains with their invincible legions were formed, who enabled Charles the Fifth to dictate laws to Europe for half a century. And it was Columbus, who not only led the way, but animated the Spanish navigator with the spirit of discovery. Scarcely was Ferdinand's reign. 1520. brought to a close, before Magellan completed, what that monarch had projected, the circumnavigation 1518. of the southern continent; the victorious banners 156 In the two closing Chapters of Part I. of this History, I have noticed the progress of letters in this reign; the last which displayed the antique coloring and truly national characteristics of Castilian poetry. There were many circumstances, which operated, at this period, to work an important revolution, and subject the poetry of the Peninsula to a foreign influence. The Italian Muse, after her long silence, since the age of the trecentisti, had again revived, and poured forth such ravishing strains, as made themselves heard and felt in every corner of Europe. Spain, in particular, was open to their influence. Her language had an intimate affinity with the Italian. The improved taste and culture of the period led to a diligent study of foreign models. Many Spaniards, as we have seen, went abroad to perfect themselves in the schools of Italy; while Italian teachers filled some of the principal chairs in the Spanish universities. Lastly, the acquisition of Naples, the land of Sannazaro and of a host of kindred spirits, opened an obvious communication with the literature of that country. With the nation thus prepared, it was not difficult for a genius like that of Boscan, supported by the tender and polished Garcilasso, and by Mendoza, whose stern spirit found relief in images of pastoral tranquillity and ease, to recommend the more finished forms of Italian versification to their countrymen. These poets were all born in Isabella's reign. The first of them, the principal means of effecting this literary revolution, singularly enough, was a Catalan; whose compositions in the Castilian prove the ascendency, which this dialect had already obtained, as the language of literature. The second, Garcilasso de la Vega, was son of the distinguished statesman and diplomatist of that name, so often noticed in our History; and Mendoza was a younger son of the amiable count of Tendilla, the governor of Granada, whom he resembled in nothing but his genius. Both the elder Garcilasso and Tendilla had represented their sovereigns at the papal court, where they doubtless became tinctured XXVI. 1524. of Cortes had already penetrated into the golden CHAPTER realms of Montezuma; and Pizarro, a very few years later, following up the lead of Balboa, embarked on the enterprise which ended in the downfall of the splendid dynasty of the Incas. The Thus it is, that the seed sown under a good system continues to yield fruit in a bad one. season of the most brilliant results, however, is not always that of the greatest national prosperity. The splendors of foreign conquest in the boasted reign of Charles the Fifth were dearly purchased by the decline of industry at home, and the loss of liberty. The patriot will see little to cheer him with that relish for the Italian, which produced such results in the education of their children. The new revolution penetrated far below the superficial forms of versification; and the Castilian poet relinquished, with his redondillas and artless asonantes, the homely, but heartful themes of the olden time; or, if he dwelt on them, it was with an air of studied elegance and precision, very remote from the Doric simplicity and freshness of the romantic minstrelsy. If he aspired to some bolder theme, it was rarely suggested by the stirring and patriotic recollections of his nation's history. Thus, nature and the rude graces of a primitive age gave way to superior refinement and lettered elegance; many popular blemishes were softened down, a purer and nobler standard was attained, but the national characteristics were effaced; beauty was everywhere, but it was the beauty of art, not of nature. The change itself was perfectly natural. It corresponded with the external circumstances of the nation, and its transition from an insulated position to a component part of the great European commonwealth, which subjected it to other influences and principles of taste, and obliterated, to a certain extent, the peculiar features of the national physiognomy. How far the poetic literature of Castile was benefited by the change, has been matter of long and hot debate between the critics of the country, in which I shall not involve the reader. The revolution, however, was the growth of circumstances, and was immediately effected by individuals, belonging to the age of Ferdinand and Isabella. As such, I had originally proposed to devote a separate chapter to its illustration. But I have been deterred from it by the unexpected length, to which the work has already extended, as well as by the consideration, on a nearer view, that these results, though prepared under a preceding reign, properly fall under the domestic history of Charles V.; a history which still remains to be written. But who will attempt a pendant to the delineations of Robertson ? The period of national glory. PART 11. in this "golden age" of the national history, whose outward show of glory will seem to his penetrating eye only the hectic brilliancy of decay. He will turn to an earlier period, when the nation, emerging from the sloth and license of a barbarous age, seemed to renew its ancient energies, and to prepare like a giant to run its course; and glancing over the long interval since elapsed, during the first half of which the nation wasted itself on schemes of mad ambition, and in the latter has sunk into a state of paralytic torpor, he will fix his eye on the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, as the most glorious epoch in the annals of his country. INDEX. A. Adventure, spirit of, in the time of Fer- ABBOT, ABIEL, his Letters from Cuba, Africa, Oran in, captured, 111. 306. Na- III. 242, note. Abdallah, or Boabdil, proclaimed Sultan Abdallah, or "The Valiant," brother of Hacen, his bravery in the rout of the Adalid, meaning of, 1. 358, note. varro's conquests in, 312. Albion, Juan de, sent on a mission to Albornoz, sent on a mission to Rome; Alcalá de Henares, literary character of, Alcalá, University of, 1. 315. Its mag- Alcavala, commutation of the capricious | Alfonso, a physician, employed in the tax of, 1. 438. Remarks on it, 449, note. Alexander VI., Ferdinand and Isabella's Alfonso V., of Aragon, succeeds Ferdi- Alfonso II., king of Naples, flies to Sici- compilation of the Complutensian Po- Alhakem II., his encouragement of Alhama, description of, 1. 319. Spanish Gaeta, 11. 78, 119. Secretly supports Almeria, painful march of the Spanish Alps, crossed by Charles VIII. 11. 277 ; 11. 425. New insurrection there, 431. dition against Guienne, 1. 350. In- Alvaro, son of the duke of Braganza, Alviano, Bartolomeo d', the head of the Orsini, enlists under Gonsalvo, n. |