844 
he imbibed this taste from Lope, 
and owed his merit in poetry to the 
perusal of his works.” 
After he had been married a few 
years, Lope de Vega lost his wife, 
and to fly from painful recollec- 
tions, embarked with his brother in 
the famous armada. The conquest 
of England was fully expected from 
this powerful armament, and the 
Spanish poets, atits outset, wrote 
odes and sonnets of prophetic tri- 
umph, which it would have been 
prudent not to have published be- 
fore the event, and to have des- 
troyed after it. Gonzara upon the 
occasion addressed his country 
in an ode, of which one passage is 
remarkable, as having been so com- 
pletely verified in favour of En. 
gland, instead of Spain. He says to 
Spain,— 
By pais zeal and noble wrath possest, 
ith restless woods hast thou 
Peopled the humid Neptune's billowy 
breast : 
And all who in thy kingdoms would ad- 
vauce 
*Gainst Britain the avenging lance, 
Collected in their numbers now, 
So multiplied a multitude has sent, 
That for their barks the wat'ry ele- 
ment 
Scarcely hath scope, and scanty are the 
gales 
Of Heaven to fill their sails, 
Therefore be sure that on thy vengeance 
ay 
Ocean shall dye his waves, now sreen 
and gray, 
All scarlet with the English pirates’ gore, 
And rich with ruins of the fray 
Waft their wreek’d navies o’er, . 
And conquered banners, thy triumphal 
boast, 
_ And dash her slaughtered sons upon thy 
coast, 
Illustrating thy ports and trophied 
shore,” 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 1806. 
Lope de Vega bade the armada 
go forth and burn the world! he 
lost his brother in the expedition, 
and wrote nothing about it on his 
return. During the voyage, he 
composed the Hermosura de Ange- 
lica, one of his longest poems, 
which professes to take up the 
story of that princess where Ariosto 
had dropped it. The Spaniards 
have several continuations ef the 
Orlando Furioso. That by Luis 
Baraliona de Soto has been highly 
praised by Lope himself, whose 
praise, however, was so indiscrimi- 
nating, as to be of no authority ; 
and also by Cervantes: but Cer- 
vantes extols some poems which are. 
of little merit, and there is some 
reason to think that this is of the 
same character, as it is so seldom 
met with, and little known. The 
Araucana, the only heroic poem in. 
the language of real merit, has often 
been reprinted, nor can the Spa- 
niards be accused of neglecting their 
early poets, It may therefore be 
suspected, that those which are ne-~ 
glected, deserve to be so. 
The Hermosura de Angelica is as 
ridiculous in fable as possible, but 
it contains many spirited passages, 
and is certainly of all Lope’s long 
poems, that which may be read 
with most pleasure, or perhaps 
more accurately speaking, with 
least fatigue. Lord Holland, in his 
life of Lope de Vega, has given two 
specimens, well chosen, and happily 
translated, 
Lord Holland quotes from this 
work, a Latin stanza, as being per- 
haps the only eight Latin lines of 
titles and names which are to be 
found in modern metre, and iva 
poem written in a modern lan- 
guage. It is an inscription under a 
golden statue of Philip II]. A 
proof, 
