justify tlie opinion we have expressed of 

 JLord Holland's interesting performance, 

 tod we have gladly seized on a scrap in 

 the appendix treatinj; of that illustrious 

 patriot, Don Caspar de Jovellanos, of 

 whom tnrther particulars would be most 

 acceptable from a pen actuated by the 

 principles of Lord Holland.] 



F.AKLY MARKS OF GENIUS. 



LOPE, acGordiui; to his biographers, 

 betrayed marks of genius at a very 

 early a<;e, as well as n singular propensity 

 to poetry. They assure us that at two 

 years old these qualities were perceptible 

 in the brilliancy of his eyes; that ere he 

 attairipd the age of five he could read 

 Spanibii and Latin; and that, before his 

 hand was strong enough to guide the 

 pen, he recited verses of his own compo- 

 sition, which he had the good fortune to 

 barter for prints and toys with liis play- 

 fellows. Thus even in his childhood he 

 not only wrote poetry, but turned his 

 poetry to account; an art in which he 

 must be allowed afterwards to have 

 excelled all poets antient or modern. 

 The date however of his early produc- 

 tions must be collected from his own as- 

 sertions, frorn probable circumstances, 

 and the corresponding testimony of his 

 friends and contemporaries; for they 

 were either not printed at the time, or all 

 copies of the impression have long since 

 been lost. 



El capitan Virues, Insigne ingenio, 

 Puso en tres actos la cumedia, que antes 

 Andaba en quatro como pies de nino. 

 Que erjn eiitonces ninas las comedi.iS.— 

 V yo las escribi de on<;e y ilotje anos. 

 De a quatro actos, y de a quatro pliegos, 

 Porquecada acto UQ pliego contenia. 



Plays oi three acts we owe to Virues" pen, 

 Which ne'er had crawl'd but on all fours 



till then; 

 An action suiied to that helpless age, 

 The intai.cyof wit, tfic childhood of the stage. 

 Such (.lays nut twelveyears old did I complete, 

 Four »heett to every play, an acton every sheet. 



SPANISH PASTORALS. 



Pastoral works, in pro^e and verse, 

 bad already met with considerable suc- 

 cess in Spain; of which the Diana 

 by Monicmavor was the firtt in point of 

 ineiit. aiul I believe in time. The spe- 

 cie* of cirnposition is m itself tedious, and 

 the conduct of the Arcadia evidently 

 absurd. A (laitoral in fue long books of 

 prose run nmd, in which the shepherds of 

 Arcadia woo their Dulcmeas in the lan- 

 guage of Amadij rather th:in of Theo- 

 Cfilus, in wlncb they occasionally talk 



r/ Lope Ftlit de Vega Carpio. 6 17 



theology, and discuss in verse the origin 

 and nature of grammar, rhetoric, ariili- 

 inetic, geometry, music, astrology, and 

 poetry, and which they enliven by epi- 

 taphs on Casiilian generals, and a long 

 poem on the achievements of the duke 

 of Alva, and the birth ot his son, is not 

 well adapted to the taste of common 

 readers, or likely to esca^ie the censure 

 of critics. In most instances, however, 

 the abstract of a work of this nature, for 

 it must be considered as a poem, forms a 

 very unfair criterion of its merit. 



The chief objects of poetry are to dc- 

 liKcate strongly the characters and pas- 

 sions of mankind, to paint the appear- 

 ances of nature, and to describe their 

 effects upon our sensations. To accom- 

 plish these ends the versification must 

 be smooth, the language pure and ini- 

 pressi^e, and the images just, natural, 

 and appropriate; our interest should be 

 excited by the nature of the subject, and 

 kept up by the spirit of the narration. 

 The probability of the story, the con- 

 nexion of (he tale, the regularity of the 

 design, are indeed beauties; but beauties 

 which are ornamental rather than neces- 

 sary, which, have often been attained by 

 persons who had no poetical turn what- 

 ever, and as often neglected by those 

 whose genius and productions have placed 

 them in the first rank in the province of 

 poetry. Novels and comedies tierive in- 

 deed a great advantage from an atten- 

 tion to these niceties. But in the higher 

 branches of invention they are the less 

 necessary, because tl.e justness of the 

 imitation of passions inherent in the ge- 

 neral nature of man, depends less upon 

 the probability of the situations, than 

 that of manners and opinions resulting 

 from the accidental and temporaryforms 

 of society. 



HISSEP.VILITY. 



Tiie tyranny, cruelty, and above all the 

 bcresv, of Queen Elizabeth, are the per- 

 petual objects of his poetical invective. 

 When in lt;02 he published a poem, 

 wiittcn on board the Armada, he had th» 

 sati-faciion of adding another uu the 

 death of a man who hud contributed to 

 complete the discomfiture of that forini* 

 dable expedition. The Dragontea is no 

 epic poem on the death of Sir Francis 

 Drake; and the reader is informed, by n 

 note in the first page, that, wherever the 

 word Drai;on occurs, it is to be taken 

 for the name of that commander. Ty- 

 ryiit, slave, butcher, and even coward, 

 are supposed to be so applicable to his 

 characttr, that tht-y are frequency be- 



kt'JWld 



