196 
Rebolledo entered into the fleet of Naples 
and Sicily, im which fervice he remained 
eighteen yeers, and henourably diftin- 
guifhed himfelf. Afterwards he feived 
in Lombardy, under Spinola. At the 
fiege of Cafal, his right arm was broken 
by 2 mufket ball. Perhaps the poet re- 
members his wound, when, in that part 
of his ** Selva Militar y Politica,” which 
treats of befieged places, he enumerates, 
among the provifions neceflary for the 
fiege, phyficians, furgeons, and medicine 
cheits. 
After ferving in the Low Countries, 
and negociating with many of the Ger- 
man powers, the count was appointed 
plenipotentiary to the court of Denmark. 
But Copenhagen was befieged during his 
reiidence there, and for two years the 
Spanith ambaflador aflifted in defending 
the town. After fo many toils and dan- 
gers heretu ned to Madrid, full of years 
and of glory; new honours were accumu- 
Jated upon him, and he died in that city, 
univerially refpected, at the age of four- 
{core. ; 
_ Amid the toils and occupations of fo 
adventurous a life, Rebolledo produced 
thofe poems that have ranked him amceng 
the nine Caftilian mufes. ‘They were 
printed feparately at Amberes and at Co- 
penhagen. An edition, in four volumes, 
was pubiifhed about thirty years fince at 
Madrid; but it is fuppofed, that fome of 
his publications efcaped the editor’s 
fearch. The firftof thefe volumes con- 
‘tains his ¢¢ Ocios,’ chiefly confifting of 
fyric pieces. From this volume a cu- 
rious epiitle is extracted in the ** Parza/o 
Lifpanod,’ hitherto my guide. The 
editor feleéts it as, in his opinion, the 
beft poem in the Ocios of Rebolledo, and 
as difplaying profound erudition, folid 
piety, exquifite taite, and accurate judg- 
ment. This praife is fomewhat enor- 
mous, for what he calls a Poema EBzblio- 
grafico, and what may properly be ftated 
a cataloguein rhyme; for it is only a lift 
of books recommended to a young ftu- 
dent. In enumerating thcfe, he begins 
with poetry ; the names alone are men- 
tioned of various poets, Greek, Latin, 
Italian, French, and Spanith, without 
“one difcriminating epithet or remark ; 
except that Virgil is called, agreeably to 
Spenifh gallantry, “ the elegant defamer 
of Dide.*’~ England is only mentioned 
under the head of hiftor'y, and the writers 
Poetry of Spain....Bernardino de Reballedo. 
he recommends are Camden, Heétor 
Boethius, and Biondi, a name with which 
IT am unacquainted. He advifes his 
friend to fly from the madnefs of Coper- 
nicus, whofe opinions are contrary to re- 
velation and common fenfe. Afterwards 
he mentions all the books in the Old and 
New Teftaments, and gives the number 
of chapters in each; recommends for 
frequent perufal, the works of St. Terefa 
and Kempis, and concludes thus; ‘* as 
you now afpire to a more fecure flate, 
you muft abhor your former way of Tife ; 
but if you look back upon iniquity, I 
fhall regard you as a new pillar of falt.” 
In the fame volume there is a madrigal, 
curiouily exemplifying the text; ‘every 
one that exalteth himfelf fhall be abafed, 
but he that humbleth himfelf fhall be ex- 
alted.”” On the entrance into Bifcay 
from Caftile, through the Sierra de Or- 
duna, between the little towns, orrather 
perhaps villages of Berberana and Leza-. 
ma, a ftream falls from the height of a 
mountain into a deep yalley; through 
which a current of air continually paffes, 
with fuch force, as to featter the water 
on its fall, and fweep it away in vapour. 
The vapour, on its elevation, condenfes, 
and falls in perpetual rain. This fingu- 
lar fport of nature is the fubjeét of this 
little poem. 
With what a deafening roar yon torrent rolls 
Its weight of waters, from the precipice, ° 
Whofe. mountain mafs darkens the hollow 
vale! 
Yet there it falls not, for the eternal wind, 
That {weeps, with force compreffled, the 
winding ftraits, : 
Scatters the midway ftream, and, borne afar, 
The heavy mift defcends, a ceafelefs fhower. 
Methinks that Eolus here forms his clouds, 
As Vulcan, amid Etna’s cavern’d fires, 
Shapes the red bolts of Jove. Sure if fome 
laze ; 
Of elder times, had journied here, hisart, 
With many a myttic fable fhadowing truth, 
Had fan&ified this fpot, where man might 
learn 
Wifdom from nature; marking how ‘the 
ftream, : 
That feeks the valley’s depth, borne upward, 
joins. 
Theiclonds of heaven; but frem its: height 
abated, 
When it wouldrife, defcends toearth In rain. 
iE yy. 
[The analyiis of the zd and 3d valuces 
cil be given i ou? Rext.y 
