1796.) 
macho calls on the Spanifh poet to beg a 
letter of introduction to Apollo. Lope 
replies : | 
My father for Arcadia is departing, 
(Where I have been myfelf) and he hall write 
Your introduction firft. He journeys there 
To feek fome tidings of a certain lord, 
By name * Anfrifo: it is now {ome time 
Since we have heard ought of him, and we 
doubt 
Whether he lives or not. I anfwer’d him, 
Senhor, I would not have you venture there, 
Nor trutt yourfelf in Paleftine unmafk’d 
And heedlefs ; for the very children fay, 
That, as Torquato did enrich thofe parts, 
So you have ruin’d them ! 
His comedies are faid to delineate cha- 
racters well, and faithfully to reprefent 
the manners of the age he lived in. This 
commendation they could net have ob- 
tained without, in fome degree, meriting 
it; and there is a livelinefs in the lighter 
pieces of Lope de Vega, which fhows him 
beft qualified for fuch fubjeéts. He him- 
felf excufes his total negleét of all dra- 
matic rules, by alledging the tafte of the 
age. ‘J have written better (fays he) ; 
** but feeing what monftrous productions 
pleate the women and the mob, I have 
locked up all my precepts, and turned 
Plautus and Terence out of my library. 
Surely it is juft that, as the public pay, 
the public fhould be pleafed.”” A child- 
ith and ridiculous defence, which de- 
ferves not a refutation ! 
The burlefque pieces of this univerfal 
author were publithed by him, under the 
name of the Licentiate Thome de Bur- 
guillos, perhaps, becaufe he thought them 
little confonant to his ecclefiaftical cha- 
racier ; perhaps, becaufe he was afnamed 
of a {fpecies of poctry {fo defpicable. An 
Ode to a Flea was printed in one of thofe 
works to which he affixed his name, 
but never avowed himielf to be the au- 
thor of it. The editor of the Parnaffo 
Efpanol calls it a witty and ingenious 
compofition ; it difplays, however, little 
ingenuity, and lefs wit. The poet. tells 
the Flea where he goes, and what he 
feeds upon, and calls him a greater Turk 
than Amurath, becaufe he {pares no- 
body. | 
. The Spanifh poets appear to have been 
little envious of each other’s reputation. 
In his Laure! de Apolo, Lope de Vega 
has liberally praifed his contemporaries ; 
and poems of the fame nature have been 
compoled by Gil Polo, Vicente Efpinel, 


# One of the characters in Lope de Vega’s 
Arcadia, 
Life and Writings of Lepe de Vega. 
S61 
and the great Cervantes. They fatiriz- 
ed each other’s faults, but they honeftly 
allowed each other’s merits ; the abilities 
of Lope de Vega and of Gongora were 
acknowledged by thofe who moft ftrongly | 
expofed the carelefinefs of the one, and 
the affectation of the other. 
T have read pearly two hundred of his 
fonnets. As might be expected, many 
of them contain parts that are beautiful ; 
none of them are perfeét as wholes. The 
following is a fair fpecimen :- 
To go, and yet to linger on the way: 
To linger, and look back ; and yet to go, 
To hear a fyren’s pl-afant voice, and know 
The winds of Fortune waft ‘you far away 3 
To build gay fabrics in the bafelets air 5 
Like Lucifer, to fall precipitate 
From Heaven’s high blifs, even to a demon’s 
ftate, 
To fink defpairing ; nor regret defpair ; 
From Friendthip’s voice affe€tionate to fly ; 
Wildly to rove, and talk in folitude ; 
To think each paffing hour eternity ; 
All ill expe&ing, not to hope for good ; 
And all the hell of jealoufy to prove, 
Is to be abfent from the maid we love. 
On the 25th of Auguft 1635, died 
Lope de Vega, in the 73d year of his 
age; full of honours as of days. If not 
the beft of poets, he was the mof fortu- 
nate; the wealth he acquired rendered 
him happy in life, and the ufe he made of 
it cheered him in death. He died honour- 
ed by the great, celebrated by the learn- 
ed, and regretted by the poor. His re- 
putation ftill fourifhes in his own coun- 
try; and though the impartial judgment 
of foreigners cannot rank his produc- 
tions above mediocrity, let it be remem- 
bered, that he never was excelled in in- 
duftry as an author, or in liberality as a 
man, 
The following fonnet may ferve to 
fhow in what eftimation he was held by 
his co-temporaries: it is by Antonio 
Barbofa Bacellar, written in Spanifh— 
but a complete fpecimen of Portuguefe 
tafte : 
ON THE DEATH OF LOPE DE VEGA. 
Lope! like fome fair Syren in a fea 
Of tears, thy Mufe was heard! her wons 
d’rous fong 
Could ftill the memory of the dead prolong, 
Batiling oblivion by her harmony. 
Even Death, aftonith’d at that powerful ftvain, « 
Heard its enchanting mufic with alarm ; 
And trembled, leit his defolating arm 
Should give no victims to oblivion’s reign, 
He came, he conqu:r’d :—-{urely at fome hour, 
When o’ei the eye-lids of thy mighty Mufe 
leep fhed the poifon of her poppy dews ; 
He had not conquer’d elfe that waking power, 
5R2 He 
