Of valor praised, or craven chid,

Or Cossack foemen bent,

That now the child who runs may read
(For Fame, the Eagle, flew with speed),—
Were stored within that soldier's mind,
Each in their own heroic kind,
Like monumental urns beneath
A barrow in the field of death.

Oft as he told of toils gone through,
For Charles and his dragoons of blue,
That soldier seemed to rise in height,
Flashed from his eyes unwonted light,
And all his gestures, all his words,
Sprang out like flame from Swedish swords.
Why say, that, in the winter nights,
He loved to tell his former fights;

And, grateful, only spoke to praise

King Charles; and never failed to raise,
When mention of his name was made,

His rimless hat and torn cockade?
My infant height scarce reached his knees,
And yet I loved his histories.

His sunken cheek and wrinkled brow
Have lived with me from then till now,
And, with his stories strange and true,
Keep rising in my mind anew;

Like snowdrop bells, that wait to blow
Beneath the winter's shielding snow.

KING CHARLES'S GUARD.

HE was of Charles's body-guard,
Swedish soldiers' best reward;
Seven in number, like the train
Of sister stars in Charles's Wain;
Or nine at most, as the maidens be
Who weave the songs of Eternity.
They were trained to scorn of death,

And tried by fire and steel and blood, And hardened, by their Christian faith, Beyond the Viking hardihood

Of their sires, that, fast and free,
Ploughed with keels the subject sea.

They lay to sleep on turf or plank,
With northern winds for lullaby,
And curtained by the colder sky,

As softly as on mossy bank.

Little they cared for the flame's red aid,
Save for the sake of the cannonade,
Casting light as fierce and dun,
As a winter's blood-red sun.
They deemed no battle lost or won
To lesser odds than seven to one;
And then retreated, soft and slow,
With their faces to the foe.

But harsher laws than these, I ween,
Lay upon these hardened men:
Never to look on a maiden's eye,

Never turn ear to a maiden's sigh,

Never to heed the sweet words she said,

Ere Charles, that cold, stern chief, was wed.

No matter how soft voices strove

To match the music of the grove;

How lips might mock the rosebud's hue,

How eyes, the violets steeped in dew;

How breasts might heave for love's sweet sake,

Like floating swan on silver lake,

Vain were eyes, and breasts, and words;

They were wedded to their swords.

N the seventeenth century the drama held the foremost place in Spanish literature. It embraced all subjects from the most sacred to the most vulgar. Biblical narratives and lives of the saints, foreign history and native traditions, the escapades of students, the gallantries of nobles, the ordinary lives of citizens and peasants, all furnished themes for the stage. In Spain even to the present day some religious dramas, called autos, are performed on certain festivals in the churches, being liturgical in form, but there are others, derived from the lives of the saints, which differ from the secular dramas merely in subject. The latter plays are generally called comedies, and consist of three acts. In the higher class the leading characters are usually kings and princes, and there is much stage decoration. In the others the chief actors are caballeros or gentlemen, who wear citizens' dress, which gives the designation of "comedies of cloak and sword."

The chief glory of the Spanish stage belongs to Lope de Vega, who has already been noticed.* Though he wrote carelessly, he left the stamp of his genius on the wide range of subjects which he brought on the stage. A contemporary dramatist, Guillen de Castro (1569-1631) deserves honor as having suggested to Corneille the idea of "The Cid" which won fame on the French stage. Most of Lope's successors fell far short of his merits, while they laboriously copied his

* See Volume VI., pp. 138-148.

defects. A new genius appeared in Pedro Calderon de la Barca, who has been rated by many above Lope, and said by some even to rival Shakespeare. This extravagant estimate is probably due to Calderon's extreme devotion to Catholicism, which enabled him to picture that religious spirit. He also showed another peculiar Spanish trait, the readiness to sacrifice natural affection, love and life to the arbitrary command of a king. This point of honor was made the essential motive in the conduct of some of his chief personages. Calderon's successors exaggerated his manner and spoiled his excellencies.

The poet Ercilla, who had fought in Chili, found there a grand subject for his muse in the resistance of the native tribes to the Spanish conquerors. His poem "Araucana" was classed by Voltaire with the ancient epics, but this judgment was extravagant.

At the close of the seventeenth century Spanish literature, like all forms of national activity, seriously declined under the House of Bourbon. French influences prevailed at court and among the higher classes. But the pedantic imitations of French writers had little merit and proved failures. Native writers who endeavored to be faithful to the Spanish tradition were utterly neglected or obliged to cater to the vulgar. Poetry, drama, and fiction, all fell into meanness of thought, sometimes disguised by extravagance of style. Yet amid the dearth of original genius, there was some diligence in schools of criticism and in accumulations of knowledge. The study of the classics, national antiquities, history and philosophy, occupied the learned. French ideas on these subjects were expounded and propagated. The Royal Academy was founded in 1714, in imitation of the French, to maintain the purity of the language, and it prepared a standard grammar which appeared in 1771. After a time the study of the early national literature had some effects. A relief to the general barrenness of original work appeared in "The History of the Famous Preacher, Friar Gerundio," written by the Jesuit Isla to ridicule the foolishness and bad taste of preachers of the time. Tomas de Yriarte was one of the few imitators of La Fontaine, who reached somewhat of the grace of his original.

ERCILLA.

IN America the adventurers and warriors of Spain found new fields for their bravery; poets and historians also found new themes for their descriptions. The greatest of the poets who thus made known the New World to the Old was Alonso de Ercilla y Zuniga. He was born at Madrid about 1533 and was brought up in the king's palace. In attendance on the Infant Don Philip he visited Flanders and England. In 1553 he went to America to assist in quelling the insurrection of the Araucanians, the warlike natives of Chili. While engaged in this expedition, he commenced his epic poem, "La Araucana," writing fifteen cantos, sometimes using bits of leather when paper failed him in camp. When about to return to Spain, the poet became involved in a riot and, though innocent, was ordered to be beheaded. This sentence was revoked when he was on the scaffold, but he suffered imprisonment. Returning to Spain, he traveled over the continent of Europe. In 1570 he married a noble Spanish lady, and though he was made chamberlain of the Emperor of Germany he appears to have lived chiefly at Madrid. He died about 1598. His "Araucana" was first published in 1577, and was completed in thirty-seven cantos in 1590. Though its claim to be an epic has been disputed, its historical and geographical accuracy, so far as relates to America, has been frequently attested; but the latter parts, in which the poet sought to attract readers by variety and romance, are full of incongruities. Among other things, a new version of the story of Dido occupies two cantos, and the battle of Lepanto is related incidentally.

THE ARAUCANIAN CHIEF.

THE Araucanian chief, Caupolican, hunted from one retreat to another, is at length surprised and taken prisoner by the treachery of one of his soldiers. He voluntarily discovers his name to the Spaniards, and declares that he has the power of treating with them so as to bind the whole nation. He engages that the Araucanians shall with himself embrace Christianity, and submit to the dominion of Spain; but he