SPANISH NOVELISTS. 91 



compilers of critical histories, nor for one or two closeted reviewers 

 to write dissertations upon, with all the fury of a most confined and 

 exclusive learning, they were executed in a style admirably calculated 

 to secure the object for which they were undertaken. The same 

 may be said of the present work. In spirit, novelty, and conciseness 

 of narrative, the Spanish tale presents a striking contrast to the heavy, 

 cumbrous English novel ; and we should imagine, if a knowledge of 

 life or human nature can be conveyed by fictious inventions, that 

 these stirring, lively; stories are much better vehicles for the purpose, 

 than the most sentimental of our native productions. Spain can 

 boast of annals more fertile in deep and heart-appalling romance 

 than almost any other country in the world. Castilian and Moorish 

 blood mingle together in the current of its history, and scarcely a 

 chapter can be fixed upon in which some food is not found for the 

 excitement of imagination. But this richness in the real records of 

 the nation has produced an effect which would not generally be looked 

 for. The Spaniard, having the grandeur and vividness of romance 

 in the annals of his country, feels a call upon fiction, to furnish him 

 with romantic inventions. There is the spell of old recollections on 

 his mind, which, when free and at leisure, keep him in a state border- 

 ing on excitement. To him, therefore, the gayer, the more practical, 

 the more worldly species of fiction, will often appeal with a greater 

 chance of success, than those of a graver kind ; and we accordingly 

 find, that the class of novels which has ever been the most popular 

 in Spain, and which has called forth the exercise of the greatest 

 talents, is that which delineates the characters and adventures of the 

 most busy, the most witty, and the least sentimental of mankind. In 

 their noble national ballads, so full of romantic incident and descrip- 

 tion, we have an echo of their history, and nothing can be in stronger 

 contrast with the Novela Picaresca, the favourite, and the truly ori- 

 ginal growth of Spanish genius. It is to the poets romance has 

 resigned herself with most delight, and they have found both her and 

 their own feelings in such complete harmony with history, that tra- 

 dition has been to them a better source of inspiration than fancy. 



The reader will easily understand from these brief observations, 

 how wide a circuit is embraced by the Spanish novelists, and how 

 much skill is required in making a selection from their productions. 

 We are glad the publishers of the work on our table fixed on Mr. 

 Roscoe to execute the task. Well versed, as several of his publica- 

 tions have proved him, in southern literature, he knew the field he 

 had to traverse ; while his practical acquaintance with the taste of 

 English readers would keep him from committing the error of giving 

 a literal, and therefore unintelligible version. Of the tales he was to 

 transfuse into our language, the great merit consists in the variety 

 and liveliness of the incidents, and in delineations of that species of 

 character which is produced by the influence of a quick succession of 

 events and change of scene. The native writer might have in view 

 some minor objects, with which a foreigner would have little con- 

 cern, and there might be niceties in the turn of his expressions, the 

 enjoyment of which is, as it should be, confined to those who have 

 only such rewards for learning the tongue in which he wrote. A 



