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Rh find the way much prepared for him in the various collections of ancient and modern poetry lately published. Those by Maury and Wolf have been already mentioned. Quintana has, in the late edition of his great work, brought down the series of national poets to the beginning of this century; and Ochoa has, lastly, given a very valuable addition to his other labours of criticisms and compilation, in his Notices for a Library of contemporary Spanish writers;—'Apuntes para una Biblioteca de Escritores Españoles contemporáneos,' in two volumes, Paris, 1847. Ferrer del Rio has also conferred a great service on the national literature, by giving a series of biographical sketches, ably written, of the principal Spanish writers of the present day, ' Galeria de la Literatura Española,' published by Mellado, at Madrid, 1846. From these works, when no other authority is mentioned as of distinct character, the notices in this work have been compiled, except in a few instances, which will be found also generally stated when they have been obtained from private information. The facts, of necessity, could not but be learned from such sources, and the translator is only answerable for the selection of those he thought worthy of being repeated, and the arrangement, in addition to the criticisms that coincided with his own judgement, for his adoption.

In conclusion of these introductory remarks, it now only remains necessary further to observe, that the rules of Spanish versification are very similar to the English, being dependent upon accents, according to the rhythm adopted on certain syllables of each line, whether alternately or further removed. The rule as to rhyme is also the same, admitting of single or double rhymes, used in one case or the other, according as the accent is on the last syllable of the final word or the penultimate. The latter, however, is more common in Spanish