626 Lord Holland oh the iLife and Writtng$ 



neille left unimproved; and to these excuse the lenf^tli of this treatiiie. 



Ha<l 



some slight rcsenibiance maybe traced Lope never written, the master-pieces of 



in the operas of Metastasio, whom the Corneille and Mohere might never liave 



Spaniards represent as the admirer and been produced; and were not those cele- 



imitator of their tlieatre. In his heroic brated compositions known, he mighc 



plays there is a greater variety of plot still be regarded as one of the best dra<- 



than in his comedies; though it is not to inatic authors in Europe. 

 be expected that in the many hundreds It seems but an act of justice to pay 



he composed h« should not often repeat some honour to the memory of men 



the same situation and events. On the whose labours have promoted literature, 



wholei however, the fertility of his genius, and enabled others to eclipse their repu- 



in the contrivance of interesting plots, tation. .Such was Lope de Vega; once 



is as surprising as in the coniposiiion of the pride and gl'iry of Spaniards, who in 



Terse. Among the many I have read, I their literary, as in their political achieve. 



liave not fallen on one which does not menis, have, by a singular fat«lity, di*. 



•trongly fix the attention; and, though covered regions, and opened mines, to 



many of his plots have been traniferred benefit their neighbours and their rivals, 



to the French and English stage, and and to enrich every nation of Europe, 



rendered more correct and more proba- but their own. 

 ble, they have seldom or never been im- or.iLtEN de castho. 



proved in the great article of exciting Guillen de Castro, an author, to whom 



curiosity and interest. This was the spell the great Corneille was indebted for tiJfe 



by which he enchanted the populace, general plot, and for many of the beauties 



to whose taste for wonders he is accused of his most celehiated play, attracted little 



of having sacrihced so much solid repu- notice during his life-time, and has left 



tation. True it is, that his extraordi- few, if any, memorials of his charactet to 



nary and embarrassing situations are satisfy the curiosity of posterity. His il- 



often as unprepared by previous events lustriotis imitator mentions him as the 



as they are unforeseen by the audience; original author of the Cid, and speaks of 



they come upon us by surprise, and, when him with that veneration which a u»an of 



we know them, we are as much at a loss real genius is generally disponed to pay to 



to account for such strange occurrences another. This honourable testimony hsf» 



as before J they are produced, not for failed, however, to stimulate the enqui-- 



the purpose of exhibiting the peculiar!- ries of the numerous French critics ainl 



ties of character, or the workings of na- commentators who have written upoh 



ture, but with a view of astonishing the that celebrated tragedy. Few of thefh 



audience with strange, unexpected, un- seem to have consulted the originrti 



natural, and often inconsistent conduct work ; none to have ascertained the ci'r* 



in some of the principal characters. Nor cumstances of the author's Itl'e,- or ifrtf 



is this the only defect in his plots. The estimation in which either before or a^'ttr^ 



personages, like ilie author, are full of liis death he had been held by his conn', 



intrigue and invention; and, while they trymen. La Harpe calls him an imii'it. 



lay schemes and devise plots, with as tator of Diamaiue, an author vi^iio diJ 



much ingenitity as Lope himself, they not live till half a century after \\\ni. 



•eem to be iictuated by the same motives Even Voltaire confmes himself to sotiicJ 



also ^ for it is dillicuit to discover any remarks upon the extracts suhjcWned' to 



.«tiier than that of diverting and sur- the first tdition of the French Ctrf; jjnrf, 



prising the audience. thooi;h he praises in general teri*.ys thcf 



INFLDENCE OF LOPE. Original S-paoisli, grves oo abstract of tittf 



-" fiut the elJ'ect of Lope's labours must play, and no accouitl whatever of Guilieii 



not be considered by a reference to Ian- de Caitro. 



guage alone. For the general interest of Guillen de Castro vr?.s a conTemporsrjr 



dramatic productions, f>r the variety and of Lope, and some ndditionai circiMfi-' 



Spirit of the dialogue, as well as tor some stances enable us to fis, with a degred (>f 



particular piays, all modern theatres are precision, the date of hw pldyS. 

 indebted to him. Peifection in any art Cervantes mentions hiii\ in hi:f prologue 



I! only to be attained by successive ini- to theComedie&,aiuong the mt>st s^ic'Cfss* 



provement; and, though the last polish ful drainafic authors of the time,' ao'd two 



often effaces the marks of the preceding of the dramas which Guillen dte CaslfO' 



workman, his skill was not less necessary has left U5, »re l;iken from stories iiV DoU' 



to the accomplishment of the work, than Quixote. It is obvious, therefore, th'C 



the hanti of his more celebrated sik- they were written after the yaar ISO'S', 



cessor. This considei atioii will, I hopOy whiel* was rewlerwl' laeinorable in thd 



atiuais 



