Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. II.djvu/252

228 228 CASTILIAN LITERATURE. PART composed with more facility and grace. ^^ Among ' the more elaborate pieces, Diego de San Pedro's " Desprecio de la Fortuna " may be distinguished, not so much for any poetic talent which it exhibits, as for its mercurial and somewhat sarcastic tone of sentiment. ^^ The similarity of subject may suggest a parallel between it and the Italian poet Guidi's celebrated ode on Fortune ; and the different styles of execution may perhaps be taken, as indicating pretty fairly the distinctive peculiarities of the Tus- can and the old Spanish school of poetry. The Italian, introducing the fickle goddess, in person, on the scene, describes her triumphant march over the ruins of empires and dynasties, from the earliest time, in a flow of lofty dithyrambic eloquence, adorned with all the brilliant coloring of a stimu- lated fancy and a highly finished language. The Castilian, on the other hand, instead of this splen- did personification, deepens his verse into a moral tone, and, dwelling on the vicissitudes and vanities of human life, points his reflections with some caustic warning, often conveyed with enchanting simplicity, but without the least approach to lyric exaltation, or indeed the affectation of it. This proneness to moralize the song is in truth a characteristic of the old Spanish bard. He rare- ly abandons himself, without reserve, to the frolic ®* Cancionero General, pp. 83- maybe often charged with deficien- 89. — Oviedo, Quincuapenas, MS. cy in chronological data; a circum- ^ Cancionero General, pp. 158- stance perhaps unavoidable from 101. — Some meagre information the obscurity of their subjects, of this person is given by Nic. An- Bibliotheca Vetus, torn. ii. lib. 10, lonio, whose biographical notices cap. G.