Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. II.djvu/265

241 ROMANTIC FICTION AND POETRr. 241 ecclesiastical profession ; and the time and place of chapter his death are alike uncertain. In person he is said „ to have been comely, with an amiable disposition, and sedate and dignified demeanor. ^^ His " Propaladia," first published at Rome, passed "'s come- through several editions subsequently in Spain', where it was alternately prohibited, or permitted, according to the caprice of the Holy Office. It contains, among other things, eight comedies, writ- ten in the native redondiUas ; which continue to be regarded as the suitable measure for the drama. They afford the earliest example of the division into jornadas, or days, and of the introito, or pro- logue, in which the author, after propitiating the audience by suitable compliment, and witticisms not over delicate, gives a view of the length and general scope of his play. ^^ The scenes of Naharro's comedies, with a single exception, are laid in Spain and Italy ; those in the latter country probably being selected with refer- ence to the audiences before whom they were acted. The diction is easy and correct, without much affectation of refinement or rhetorical orna- 44 Nic. Antonio, Bibliotheca No- first to distribute the play into three va, torn. i. p. 202. — Cervantes, jornadas or acts, and takes Cer- Comedias, torn. i. pro!, de Nasarre. vantes roundly to task for assuming — Pellicer, Origen de la Comedia. the original merit of this distribu- tom. ii. p. 17. — Moratin, Obras, tion to himself. In faci, Naharro tom. i. p. 48. did introduce the division into Jive 45 Bartolome Torres de Nahar- jornadas, and Cervantes assumes ro, Propaladia, (Madrid, 1573.) — • only the credit of having been the The deficiency of the earlier Span- first to reduce them to three. Comp. ish books, of which Bouterwek re- Bouterwek, Geschichte der Poesie peatedly complains, has led him und Beredsamkeit, band iii. p. 285, into an error respecting the " Pro- — and Cervantes, Comedias, tom. paladia," vphich he had never seen. i. prol. He states that Naharro w^as the VOL. II. 31