Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. II.djvu/236

212 212 CASTILIAN LITERATURE. PART tinguished it from the time of the Cid, submitted I. soon after Ferdinand's death to the influence of the more polished Tuscan, and henceforth, losing some- what of its distinctive physiognomy, assumed many of the f)revalent features of continental literature. Thus the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella becomes an epoch as memorable in literary, as in civil his- tory. Romances of Thc most copious vciu of fancy, in that day, was turned in the direction of the prose romance of chivalry ; now seldom disturbed, even in its own country, except by the antiquary. The circum- stances of the age naturally led to its production. The romantic Moorish wars, teeming with adventu- rous exploit and picturesque incident, carried on with the natural enemies of the Christian knight, and opening moreover all the legendary stores of oriental fable, — the stnring adventures by sea as well as land, — above all, the discovery of a world beyond the waters, whose unknown regions gave full scope to the play of the imagination, all con- tributed to stimulate the appetite for the incredible chimeras, the magnanime menzogne, of chivalry. The publication of " Amadis de Gaula " gave a decided impulse to this popular feeling. This ro- mance, which seems now well ascertained to be the production of a Portuguese in the latter half of the fourteenth century, ^ was first printed in a Spanish 2 Nic. Antonio seems unwillinfj among them Lampillas, (Ensayo to relinquish llie pretensions of liis Historico-A]u)lo(jetico de la Litera- own nation to the authorship of tiiis turaEspanola, (Madrid, 1789,) torn, romance. (See Bibliotheca Nova, v. p. 168,) who resigns no more fiim.ii. p. 391.) Later critics, and than he is compelled to do, are less