Hill: Poesias B arias 
5 
of rather free poetic compositions that were current in all 
European literatures of the epoch. In the entire volume there 
are perhaps only three or four compositions that could give of- 
fense to exacting modern tastes. 
Whether or not the compiler was acquainted with the names 
of the authors of the pieces he chose it is impossible to say. 
Quite singularly, nowhere in the volume is mention made of a 
single author. Much of the verse included in the manuscript 
and already published elsewhere has been identified as belong- 
ing to certain authors; some still remains unidentified. So 
with that published herewith : some can be identified, tho most 
of it must apparently remain within the confines of that vast 
realm of anonymous Spanish poetry that attained such huge 
proportions in the first half of the seventeenth century. 
In the present edition it has not seemed worth while to 
reproduce all the compositions found in the manuscript. As 
a rule those known to have been published elsewhere are omit- 
ted, tho a very few have been included because of the interest- 
ing variants that they show. In passing, it may be remarked, 
however, that most of the compositions included in the manu- 
script and to be found published elsewhere offer variants of 
considerable interest. In many cases the variants may be due 
to the compiler's caprice, in some they may be due either to a 
traditional oral transmission or to manuscript versions that 
we no longer possess. Noteworthy among the compositions 
available in other editions is La vida del picaro. Of this most 
interesting version in tercets of the Life of the Rogue only 
two manuscript copies have heretofore come to light. One is 
in the Biblioteca universitaria de Zaragoza, the other in the 
Biblioteca Nacional at Madrid. Both were utilized by D. 
Adolfo Bonilla y San Martin for his critical edition of the 
poem published in 1902 {Revue Hispanique, tome IX, pp. 295- 
330) . The text of our manuscript offers numerous variants, 
but at the same time shows many obviously incorrect readings. 
A comparison of the variants indicates that the text here 
printed shows close relationship with that utilized by Ferrer 
for his edition printed in Paris in 1827. 
With one exception, the sonnet beginning Si del homhre las 
partes as sauido, all previously unpublished verse found in the 
manuscript is included in the present edition. In addition to 
La uida del picaro, only four other compositions included 
2—27074 
