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Our author has likewife exercifed him- 
felf in the fame line of compofition, and 
he has excelled his model in the beauty 
and feleétion of his images, and more 
particularly in the {weetnefs and nature 
ef his fentiments. For, although Viile- 
gas may have poffefied a freling heart, 
he knew not how to develope it in his 
werles. 9” 
«You will be aftonifhed to fee me treat 
with fo little refpeét, a poet of fuch high 
-eftimation: Butthe fame of this writer, 
jike that of many others, is merely tne 
fame of tradition; not founded upon his 
real merit, but upon the opinion of fome 
perfon, who knew how to impofe upon 
the mob of readers. ‘This affertion may 
appear fomewhat ‘bold, if we conficer 
when Don Vicente de los. Rios publiin- 
ed and panegyrized Villezas. ‘Then, 
perhaps, his poems were a modelof good 
tafte, but in what a ftate was our litera- 
ture then! What fhould be iaid of a 
poet, whofe verfes are full of ridiculous 
tranfpofitions, low words aud phrates, 
forced and obfcure metaphcrs, ill-timed 
allufions, amd pedantic crudition, that 
are bald of imagery, and tetally devoid 
of feeling ? ‘Theie faults mark every 
part of every work of Villegas; and 
notwithftanding the Greek * name in the 
title-page, you never hear in them the 
-Janguage of love. It avails not, my 
friend, to be learned in Greek and-Latin, 
if good tafie be wanting. Let us unde- 
ceive ourfelves; Wiilegas would’ have 
been forgotten by this timie, had it not 
been for the harmonious cadence of his 
yerfes; there,-indeed he is excellent.” 
_ The cenfure of the effayif is too. un- 
qual fied. 
titled Amatory, are moft devoid of feel- 
ing. Petrarch and Hammond are dif- 
tinguithed by fantaftic nonfenfe, and 
whining dalinefs; and wherever Cupid 
is {ubpcenaed into a poem, his evidence 
is fufacient to prove, that the poet was 
‘not in love.- A bee miftakes the lips of 
Lydia for-arofe. Lydia fees Cupid 
afleep, and fteals his bow and arrows.— 
The poet adjures the ftars to tell Ly- 
dia that her forehead is more polifhed 
than filver, and her teeth whiter than’ 
pearls. If an author abandons himfelf 
-to write upon fuch fubjeéts, you are not 
to expect human feelings. 
Strange and uncouth metaphors are 
undoubtedly to be found in the poems of 
Villegas. He addreffes a ftream, ‘ thou 
who runneft: over fands of gold, with 
Feet of filver.’’—* Touch my breaft (fays 
ABT 
# Eroticas, 
Peetry of Spain and Portugal. 
Of all poems, {uch as are en- 
hi i 5 
he) if you doubt the power of Lydia’s 
eyes, you will find it turned to afhes.”’ 
He has hyperbolized the Spanith hyper- 
bchical falutation, ‘* may you live a thou- 
fand years!” and wihes that the young 
grandee, to whom the firft of his Deli- 
cias is addrefled, may enjoy more years 
than there are days,in an age, drops of 
water in the ocean, and grains of fand 
on the thore. “ Thou art fo great (fays 
he) that thou canft only imitate thyfelf 
with thy own greatne(fs.” Jofhua Syl- 
vefter calls Du Bartas’ Weeks, 
The nobleft work, 
After itfelf’s condignity. - 
So that, “none but himfelf can be his 
parallel’ is not an unparalleled line, and 
when Aaron Hill detended it, he might 
have found precedents enough for non- 
fenfe. But abfurdities, like thefe, are 
not abundant in Villegas; and jt fhould 
be remembered, that thefe are feleéted 
from the produ@ions of his youth. 
Anacreon may be read with pleafure 
in the tranflation of the Spaniard who 
has becn- honoured with his name; nor 
will he, who perufes the verfion of Vil- 
legas, remember to its difadvantage the 
harmony of Grecian cadence. He has 
likewife introduced hexameters and Sap- 
phics, with fuccefs, into his native lan- 
guage ; and even the critic: who fo fe- 
verely attacks the i roticas, calls his Sap- 
phic ode*to Zephyrus moft beautiful (he/- 
Lijzma odo). . Astvanflation of this piece 
into Englith Sapphics, has been lately 
publifmed in the fame work * with his 
Lines to'a Stream. 
From Salamanca, Villegas returned to 
Nagera, his native place: here he lived 
with his mother, then a widow, and 
availed himfelf of leifure and retirement 
to follow his favourite fiudies, till his 
marriagé.—His marriage, appears to 
have been a fortunate one ; the account 
+he has left. is interefling : 
Hymen ! ere yet, with chaften’d heart, I pafs’d 
Shy threfhold, I hung up the idle lute : 
For better offerings fuit thy bleffed fhrine, 
Gh, holy Power! I gather now no more 
Garlands of gay and perifhable flowers, 
But in the fummmer-tide of life prefent 
“The fummer fruits. Enough were thirty years 
Of youth and folly. Even the mett!7d fteed, 
Gbedient to the rein, will bend at laft 
His flately-arching neck. ‘The blood grows 
cool, 
Paffions’ wild tempefts to a quiet calm 
Subfide 5 and from the witcheries of Vice 
‘ Her waken’d captive fiarts. Oh, holy Power! 
* Letters from Spain and Portugal, with 

fome Account of Spanith and Portuguele Poetry, 
by Robert Southey. 
Who 





















































