Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. II.djvu/248

224 similar tone of criticism, insisting on its study, as essential to a correct appreciation and comprehension of the genius of the language.

The Castilian ballads were first printed in the "Cancionero General" of Fernando del Castillo, in 1511. They were first incorporated into a separate work, by Sepulveda, under the name of "Romances sacados de Historias Antiguas," printed at Antwerp, in 1551. Since that period, they have passed into repeated editions, at home and abroad, especially in Germany, where they have been illustrated by able critics. Ignorance of their authors, and of the era of their production, has prevented any attempt at exact chronological arrangement; a circumstance rendered, moreover, nearly impossible, by the perpetual modification which the original style of the more ancient ballads has experienced, in their transition through successive generations ; so that, with one or two exceptions, no earlier date