Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. II.djvu/274

250 250 CASTILIAN LITERATURE. PART I. national literature. This criticism is embodied in the annotations and appendix to his elegant " Poetica " (Obras Literarias, (Paris, 1827,) tom. i. ii. ) The former discuss the general laws, by which the va- rious kinds of poetry are to be reg- ulated ; the latter presents a very searching and scientific analysis of the principal productions of the Spanish poets, down to the close of the last century. The critic exem- plifies his own views by copious ex- tracts from the subjects of his crit- icism, and throws much collateral light on the argument by illustra- tions borrowed from foreign litera- ture In the examination of the Spanish drama, especially comedy, which he modestly qualifies as a " succinct notice, not very exact," he is very elaborate ; and discovers the same taste and sagacity in esti- mating the merits of individual writers, which he had shown in discussing the general principles of the art. Had I read his work sooner, it would have greatly facil- itated my own inquiries in the same obscure path ; and I should have recognised, at least, one brilliant exception to my sweeping remark on the apathy manifested by the Castilian scholars to the antiquities of the national drama.