84 



ERCILLA V ZUNIGA ERFURT. 



in high repute, the scattered remains were collected 

 and published by Seidel, 1798. 



ERCILLA Y ZUNIGA, DON ALONZO DE ; knight 

 of St James, and chamberlain to the emperor Ro- 

 dolph, the Uiinl son of a Spanish jurist, who was also 

 a knight of the above order. When he was born is 

 uncertain, but it was before 1540. His mother, 

 from whom he inherited the name of Zuniga, carried 

 him, after the early death of his father, to the court 

 of the empress Isabella, consort of Charles V. The 

 young Alonzo was page to the Infant don Philip, 

 and accompanied him on his travels through the 

 Netherlands and a part of Germany, and through 

 Italy, Poland, Bohemia, and Hungary, and, in 1554, 

 went with him to England, on the occasion of his 

 marriage with queen Mary. Soon after this an insur- 

 rection breaking out among the Araucanians, a tribe 

 of Indians on the coast of Chile, Ercilla joined an 

 expedition sent against them. The difficulties the 

 Spaniards had to encounter, the heroic resistance of 

 the natives, and the multitude of gallant deeds by 

 which the war was signalized, inspired the young 

 and brave Ercilla with the idea of making it the sub- 

 ject ot an epic poem, to which he gave the name of 

 La Araucana. He began the work on the spot, 

 writing often during the night what had been achieved 

 in the day (Tomando ora la espada, ora la pluma), 

 and was obliged sometimes, for want of paper, to use 

 pieces of leather. Ercilla is said afterwards to have 

 come near losing his life by reason of a groundless 

 charge of mutiny, and to have been actually on the 

 scaffold before his innocence was made known. He 

 returned to Spain, very much out of health, and after 

 having finished the first part of his epic. All this 

 he performed before completing his 29th year. In 

 1570, he married Maria Bazan, at Madrid, whose 

 charms and virtues are celebrated by him, in various 

 passages of his poem. In 1577, the first part of his 

 poem, in 1590, the whole, was published. His 

 merits were not rewarded ; for he died at Madrid in 

 great poverty and obscurity. The time and circum- 

 stances of his death are uncertain ; he must have 

 been alive, however, in 1596, as Mosquera, in his 

 book on military discipline, speaks of him as his 

 contemporary. He left no legitimate children. 



The Araucana is an historical epic in the octave 

 measure, in which the author confines himself, with 

 the exception of some episodes and a few fictions, to 

 the exact historical course of events. Hence the 

 poem often assumes almost the character of a chro- 

 nicle. Voltaire's judgment on this poem (in his 

 Essai sur la Poesie epique) shows that he had not read 

 it. Cervantes, in the sixth book of Don Quixote, 

 ranks it by the side of the best Italian epics ; but 

 probably few persons, uninfluenced by patriotic 



Eride, will agree with him. It has been continued 

 y a certain don Diego de Santisteban Osorio. Lope 

 de Vega has taken from the epic of Ercilla the 

 materials for his piece Arauca Conquered. The first 

 part of the Araucana, as already stated, appeared in 

 1577, in 15 cantos ; the second part in 1578 : the 

 whole, hi three parts, 1590, contains 37 cantos ; new 

 edition, Madrid, 1776. It has been translated into 

 Italian, and twice into French (but abridged), Paris, 

 1824; See Araucanians. 



EREBUS ; in fabulous history, the son of Chaos 

 and Darkness. He married his sister, Night, and 

 was the father of the Light and Day. The Parcfe, 

 or Fates, by some are called his daughters. He was 

 transformed into a river, and plunged into Tartarus, 

 because he aided the Titans. From him, the name 

 Erebus was given to the infernal regions, particu- 

 larly that pan of it which is designated as the abode 

 of virtuous shades, and from which they pass over 

 immediately to the Elysian fields. 



ERECTHEUS. See Ericthoniui. 



EREMITE (from the Greek e ^ f) a desert;) one 

 who secludes himself from society. See Ana 

 chorite. 



ERESICTHON. See Erisicthon. 



ERFURT; an important Prussian fortress in 

 Thuringia. It was ceded to Prussia at the peace of 

 Paris, since which time its fortifications have been 

 much strengthened. It is situated on the great road 

 which leads from Frankfort on the Maine to the 

 north of Germany, passing, in part of its course, 

 along the mountains called the Thuring an Forest 

 (Thuringer JVald}. In the fifteenth and sixteenth 

 century, Erfurt was a flourishing commercial place, 

 and contained not less than 60,000 inhabitants ; at 

 present, there are not more than 21,330, in 2781 

 houses. The university, established in 1378, was 

 suppressed by the Prussian government in 1816, for 

 the purpose of merging it in one of those great estab- 

 lishments for education, of which Prussia has so 

 many. The inhabitants are mostly Lutherans. 

 There are two forts, called Petersberg and Cyriaks- 

 berg. Erfurt is the capital of a government, and the 

 seat of several courts, and contains a royal academy 

 of practical science, two gymnasia (royal schools), an 

 institution for the deaf and dumb, a musical society, 

 and several other institutions. The large bell called 

 Susanna, made of the finest bell-metal, and weighing 

 275 cwt., and the cell in which Luther lived, while 

 an Augustine monk, from 1505 till 1512, are shown 

 as curiosities. According to tradition, Erfurt was 

 founded as early as the fifth century, by a certain 

 Erpes. It was not a free imperial city, but always 

 maintained a sort of independence, notwithstanding 

 the claims of the elector of Mentz. In 1483, it con 

 eluded a treaty with Saxony, by which it agreed to 

 pay an annual sum for protection. In the seven- 

 teenth century, the elector of Mentz finally obtained 

 possession of it. In 1814, it was granted to Prussia, 

 by the congress of Vienna. The government, of 

 which it is the capital, contains 1404 square miles, 

 with 257,500 inhabitants, in 22 large towns, 12 small 

 towns, and 401 villages. 



Erfurt is celebrated for the interview between 

 Napoleon, and Alexander (emperor of Russia), several 

 kings, and many princes, in September, 1808, 

 when the French emperor's power was at its acme. 

 The chief object of Napoleon was the entire pacifica- 

 tion of Europe, as he believed he had finally suc- 

 ceeded in effecting that of the continent. (See the 

 article Congress.) He and Alexander jointly invited 

 the king of England to accede to the peace ; but 

 their pressing letter was answered only by the minis- 

 ter, who, as Napoleon expressed himself, attempted 

 to renew the questions which had been decided at 

 Jena and Friedland. " He wished me," says he, 

 " to confess that I had been guilty of violence at 

 Bayonne, by acknowledging the cortes of Spain and 

 the regency of Portugal." We add here, that 

 remarkable document, the letter of Napoleon and 

 Alexander to the king of England, which is only a 

 repetition of the sentiments expressed by Napoleon, 

 Ji his letter to George III., after his adoption of the 

 ;itle of emperor : " Sire, the present situation of 

 Europe has brought us together at Erfurt. Our first 

 wish is to fulfil the desire of all nations, and, by a 

 speedy pacification with your majesty, to take the 

 most effectual means for relieving the sufferings of 

 Europe. The long and bloody war, which has con- 

 vulsed the continent, is at an end, and cannot be re- 

 newed. Many changes have taken place in Europe; 

 many governments have been destroyed. The cause 

 is to be found in the uneasiness and the sufferings 

 occasioned by the stagnation of maritime commerce. 

 ~ reater changes still may take place, and all will be 



