Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. II.djvu/255

231 ROMANTIC FICTION AND POETRY. 231 considerable length, and is sustained throughout in chapter XX a tone of the highest moral dignity, while the poet. '. leads us up from the transitory objects of this lower world to the contemplation of that imperishable existence, which Christianity has opened beyond the grave. A tenderness pervades the piece, which may remind us of the best manner of Petrarch ; while, with the exception of a slight taint of pe- dantry, it is exempt from the meretricious vices that belong to the poetry of the age. The effect of the sentiment is heightened by the simple turns and broken melody of the old Castilian verse, of which perhaps this may be accounted the most finished specimen ; such would seem to be the judgment of his own countrymen, ^° whose glosses and commen- taries on it have swelled into a separate volume. ^^ I shall close this survey with a brief notice of Spanish the drama, whose foundations may be said to have been laid during this reign. The sacred plays, or mysteries, so popular throughout Europe in the middle ages, may be traced in Spain to an ancient date. Their familiar performance in the churches, by the clergy, is recognised in the middle of the thirteenth century, by a law of Alfonso the Tenth, which, while it interdicted certain profane mum- 30 " Don Jorge Manrique," says Manrique's Coplas have also been Lope de Vega, " cuyas coplas Gas- the subject of a separate publica- tellanas admiren los ingenios es- tion in the United States. Profes- trangeros y merecen estar escritas sor Longfellow's version, accom- con letras de oro." Obras Suel- panying it, is well calculated to tas, toni. xii. Prologo. give the English reader a correct 31 Coplas de Don Jorge Manrique, notion of the Castilian bard, and, ed. Madrid, 1779. — Dialogo de of course, a very exaggerated one las Lenguas, apud Mayans y Sis- of the iiterary culture of the age. car, Origenes, torn. ii. p. 149. — Rise of the Spanisl drama.